The Yellow Phantom
by The Dragon-wolf Omega
Summary: AU:  Minato once had a daughter who one day disappeared from the village.  Years later, Naruto is born, and his parrents are killed off  *cough*Kyuubi   His sister watches over him, and takes him in after many attacks from mobs.  How will things change?
1. Chapter 1

A/N This is for one of Dragonwolf Tamer's challenges on- wait (exclude pronoun) profile. I just reedited this due to errors that this silly word document didn't save after editing. I saved twice!

The Yellow Phantom

Chapter 1: The Infant's Guardian

"…This is getting annoying," an Anbu muttered as his attack was simply brushed away by the Kyuubi. The skies were dark with fear and darkness, and the chilling winds weren't helping anyone feel better.

"All we're doing is distracting this demon until the hokage arrives with his solution," the second Anbu shouted as her kunai was deflected to the side.

"Well, he better come before the village is a graveyard," the first anbu said as he avoided a blast of red chakra, "And speak of the devil himself."

With a flash of yellow light, the fourth hokage, Minato, leaped into view with a baby in his arms, "How's everyone doing?"

"…" the many Anbu that arrived looked at Minato with an expression that was a cross of fear for the baby in the way of danger, confusion for that same reason, and offense from the sarcastic question that was asked.

"You don't have to look at me like that," Minato muttered as he performed the summoning jutsu for Gamabunta, the Toad Boss.

"Wha- Kyuubi?" The massive toad looked confused as he was face-to-face with the Nine tail fox, "I woke up from a dream to enter a nightmare?"

"No," Minato responded with a bit of annoyance in his voice, "you woke up from a dream to hold off the demon while I perform a sealing jutsu on him."

Remembering the plan, the toad lunged at the demon, "Make it quick, red chakra actually stings a lot on slimy skin."

"Don't worry, this won't take long," Minato shouted as he flew through the hand signs needed for the sealing jutsu needed to remove the fox from this existence…for now. Once the hand signs were complete, a flash of light flashed brightly, and everyone watched as the Kyuubi vanished, the toad dispelled, the hokage lying lifeless on the ground, and the baby taking a nap next to his deceased father along with the bodies of other ninja who gave their lives to defend everyone they knew. The remaining ninja looked at the remains of the great battle that occurred…particularly one Anbu who looked at the baby in dismay.

"I guess your dad won't be taking care of you this lifetime," the masked figure whispered as she looked onwards to everything that was in ruins, "Your not alone kid…he is not going to be here for me either."

With that, the ninja was enveloped in a pale yellow light, and flew off into the distance.

"Just be strong…I'll come back for you after I learn a few new tricks."

…3 years later

It was a bad idea to sneak into this festival. Naruto was told that festivals were fun and exciting, until an angry mob formed and chased him out of town…again. Was sneaking to the festival that celebrated the defeat of the Kyuubi a bad idea?

"We're going to get you demon," one of the men in the mob shouted as Naruto turned a corner. This had been going on for a while now. Naruto actually had a sense of fear and excitement every time the villagers chased him. And anyway, the villager eventually go to sleep. A yellow glow appears some screaming is heard, and the villagers are taking a nap with red stuff leaking out of them.

"I just need to wait for it," Naruto muttered as he tripped over a random bottle, and fell face-flat onto the ground, "I just hope it comes soon."

Kakashi was searching the village for Naruto. The number of times the third hokage told the kid to remain in his protective abode, Naruto somehow gets passed all the Anbu guards and gets himself in trouble.

Kakashi then noticed some lights in the distance, "Torches…they really want to get themselves spotted."

Kakashi, though, was getting bored of these hunts. For some reason, by the time he found Naruto, the villagers were already dead. Surely the young child was not capable of tapping into the fox's power. He was too young for that, and the Kyuubi would doo much more devastation to the area. On the other hand, the wounds on the villagers were related to lacerations with blades. If someone was keeping an eye on the young child, he or she was very quick in taking down multiple foes with a blade.

Heading towards the lights, Kakashi still had to take the kid home and check if he's still all right.

"Great," Naruto thought as all the villagers surrounded him, weapons on hand to strike the defenseless kid down, "it looks like I'm doomed this time."

One of the men laughed, "You thought you were going to get away this time!" The man pointed his weapon towards the kid's head, "I'll make sure this axe cuts you clean in half demon!"

"This is getting annoying," a figure above the mob muttered as she removed her mask. As soon as the fool was done making his empty threats, she enveloped herself in a pale yellow glow, and quickly flew down onto the unsuspecting mob.

"If he was a demon," the ghost shouted as all the villagers looked up, "then why hasn't he killed you yet!"

The villager's were in awe at the phantom that floated above them, "M-M-M-M-Mistress Kushina?"

"Close," the phantom mocked as she pulled out a tiny dagger, "but you better stop attempting to murder my little brother, and start running for your lives!"

"Try us!" A villager said threatening as he brung the axe down onto Naruto's head…only to find that both his arms were now on the ground, "AAAAAAAHH!"

"Stop bothering the village with your screams," the phantom said as she swiftly swiped the tiny knife through the man's throat, leaving his screams a mere gurgle of blood and spit.

Awe-struck, the villagers never stood a chance against the speed and power of the mysterious phantom. Even though 3 seconds didn't leave much time to contemplate what the heck the ghost was before they were quickly, but brutally, hacked to pieces. Many thought it was the mother that returned. Others thought that the daughter of Minato rose from the grave. Few remembered the lost child of Minato and Kushina. The child just disappeared one day, and was assumed to be dead after 3 years since she was only 2 when she vanished. But, it didn't matter. All of them were going to find out when they reached the afterlife.

"This used to be fun," the female phantom said as she dispelled her special jutsu and walked towards the little kid, who was staring at him with confusion, "Hello."

Naruto could barely remember who his parents were. He once saw a picture with a man and woman holding a small kid that resembled him…but that was 2 years ago. Strangely, the woman in front of her looked exactly like the woman from the picture. Could it be mommy?

"Mommy?" Naruto asked with a quiet voice as the figure stepped in front of the kid, and lifted him up.

"Close…" the woman responded as she hugged the kid, "I'm your long-lost sister who's been saving you from all those bad people."

"Sister?" Naruto said with a broken accent as he tried to think, "What's a sister?"

Looking confused at the kid, the woman blinked a few times and responded, "Well, I have the same mommy and daddy as you did."

"You know where mommy and daddy are!" Naruto jumped in the lady's arms, excitement filling his eyes, "Can you take me to them please oh please!"

"Sorry," the woman apologized as she placed the kid on his feet, "I can't take you to them right now."

"MMMM," Naruto pouted as he looked to his right, "It's the masked guy."

"Hmmm," the lady turned to the Anbu, who looked at her confused.

"…Kushina?" The man responded as the lady shook her head, "Then…you must be Kasumi."

"I'm glad someone remembers the missing child of the Yellow Flash," the lady responded as she searched for a cookie to give to Naruto in her bag, "I thought I was long forgotten."

"My sensei once told my team of another child they had after we saw Naruto being born."

"So, you must be Kakashi Hatake if my constant peaking in classified records are correct," Kasumi said as she found the cookie she was looking for and handed it to her brother, "you really do match the description of "always serious-sounding" that Minato always put down in his team reports."

Ignoring the fact that his sensei probably put other things in that report, Kakashi then noticed all the dead bodies with the same slashes through them, "You were protecting Naruto from the villagers."

"Yep," Kasumi nodded as she then looked for milk in her bag, realizing that putting milk in bags was silly, "Someone had to do something in a timely fashion, wink wink."

"…That one was Obito's problem," Kakashi muttered as Kasumi laughed.

"I don't know much about the late Uchiha, but you look like someone who is fashionably late to parties."

Trying to get away from any other subjects that could be used to humiliate him, Kakashi noticed that Kasumi was picking up Naruto, "Wait!"

"What now, my little brother is getting a bit drowsy."

"Sis," Naruto yawned as he tried to make himself snug in his sister's arms, "I'm getting sleepy."

"I was ordered to-" Kakashi was quickly silenced by Kasumi raising her hand to her lips, and responding with a "SHHHH, he's trying to go to sleep. Let me take him home with me."

"I need to re-" Kakashi couldn't finish his line as Kasumi activated her jutsu and leaped into the air, only to fly over Kakashi's head as a ghostly figure.

"I'm not too sure if they're going to believe you," Kasumi said as she flew too swiftly for the copy ninja to follow, "but tell your bosses that the Yellow Phantom took Naruto to a better place." With that, a bright flash of light enveloped her and Naruto, and then they were gone.

Kakashi, wondering if anyone was going to believe any story he told them, headed back to the hokage's tower to report on his mission.

The next chapter will be the tale of Naruto's older sister going missing. Stay tuned…even though this is print, and not a television screen…

…you know what, just wait for the next chapter!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Wow, this story is doing well for its first chapter. If my computer can stop crashing long enough to type something, I should be able to update a lot more faster. As well, even though Kasumi is explaining her life story, I'm writing it in the third person. Let's say her words are forming another story. Okay?

As well, due to more random difficulties with technology, I can't use my spell check without my computer crashing. So, with the help of Dragon-wolf Tamer, this document was edited.

Chapter 2: Why you don't Train Ninjas Early

It was going well for the now 4-year-old kid. Villager attacks have finally subsided, thanks to Kasumi actually fending them off. They eventually were frightened off from ever attacking. Most were afraid of her fighting abilities, others because of her shocking resemblance to her mother, and everyone else, noticed she had the personality of the fourth hokage. Perceptive, caring, and not afraid to kill anyone who harmed his little brother.

"Let's see if we can get you into the Ninja Academy next year," Kasumi said as they headed out the door, "but let's go get some ramen before we get there."

"Yay," Naruto cheered as they were going to get one of his favorite things to eat, "Ramen, ramen, ramen, ramen, ramen!"

Along the trip, she went to a nearby toy store, and bought the kid a new ball to play with. Happy, Naruto gladly accepted the gift, and threw the ball towards some bushes, hitting something living in there.

"I know your hiding there, Kakashi," Kasumi shouted as she picked up a stick and began poking the bush with it.

"It's not my day," Kakashi muttered as he stood from the bushes, a novel clenched in his right hand, "how I am having trouble shadowing a 4-year-old and a teenager with no experience in this type of work is beyond me."

"Hmmm," Kasumi noticed the comment, "I actually have some run-ins in the location I lived in, if you are interested, I'll tell you everything at the Ramen shop so you people back at where ever you guys hide in could have a nice file of me."

Noticing that he hasn't eaten for a while, Kakashi nodded and followed the two to the shop. 'An entire year of following them, and I'm caught every time. She's as perceptive as her father.'

Once at the Ramen shop, the young knuckleheaded ninja couldn't control himself. He was excited for being here.

"How can we help you little one," one of the store keepers asked Naruto as he quickly responded.

"One of everything please!" Naruto cheered as Kasumi jumped at the order.

"Wait wait, wait," Kasumi leaped to the kid and covered his mouth, "Two barbecued pork and whatever masky wants over there," Kasumi ordered as Naruto became a little sad, "Sorry, I don't have that much money on me."

Making his order of a third barbecued pork ramen, Kakashi found a table to sit at. Kasumi and Naruto followed him to the same seat as they waited for their food to be prepared. Kasumi laid back on her chair before Kakashi then coughed before she sat up.

"That's right, you need to fill my empty record," Kasumi said as Kakashi nodded as she laid on her chair again, "I guess I'll tell you so you guys can stop marking me as missing. 15 years ago, when I was around 2 or three, Minato was showing off a lot of his moves to me."

Using the training ground near his home, the young Minato and Kasumi were preparing for another day of training. This training, as Minato put it, was a game of tag.

"Try to catch me," the younger Kasumi, wearing a yellow jacket and sweatpants, shouted as she tried to avoid her father from tagging her, "I'm winning, I'm winning, I'm-"

"Tag," Minato laughed as a flash of light appeared next to Kasumi, revealing the Yondaime himself, "Gotcha again."

"…Cheater," Kasumi wined as she now had to begin her training whenever Minato tagged her, which was all the time.

"The academy teaches you how to use weapons and basic jutsus, so I won't waste your time with things that the academy will teach," Minato then created a ball of energy in one of his hands, "let me teach and show some of my advanced ninjutsus to you, and see how well you control your chakra."

"OOOOOO," Kasumi stared at the ball of energy, and quickly poked it with a stick. Not expecting this, Minato had his Rasengan explode on his stomach area. He was thankful it wasn't fully charged.

Kasumi, who flew backwards from the attack, was in awe at the power and tried really hard to follow her father's instructions. The water balloon and balloon weren't that difficult, especially with Minato's guidance, but she was too young for the rubber ball one. And it had nothing to do with her unable to hold the ball in her hands…

"Maybe we'll try this again when your hands are big enough," Minato said with a smile trying to cheer up the upset child, "Let me show you another trick I know."

Quickly, Minato teleported to Kasumi, but this time, she observed how her father did the move. Amazed, she kept the things needed to perform it, so she can finally win a game of tag.

"I think it might be more appropriate for me to teach you how to do some of my moves when your older," Minato said as he lifted up his Space barrier, "Like this defensive move."

Observing, the young child remembered everything her father did to practice it later.

"Now to start with our training before your mother is done with her cooking," Minato said as they began combat training.

After 3 hours of schooling his daughter (metaphorically and literally), Minato headed inside to check on his wife. Kasumi, now having a bit of free time, attempted to do some of her father's moves.

"What was that first one agan," Kasumi said with some mispronunciation as she remembered the name, "Rasingon!"

Trying to skip the rubber ball part, she attempted to create a ball of energy. She really wanted to impress her father with her abilities. Though, having it randomly smashing into you isn't showing your best.

"…Ow," Kasumi moaned as she stood up back from the rubble of the rock she broke, "It's powerful…but it harts allot." (Misspelled due to the fact 2 year olds can't speak perfect English)

The Space barrier move also failed epically. She ended up summoning a tiny line. It could probably protect you from a tennis ball, but not any well-placed attack. Again and again, she couldn't summon a big enough barrier. For her last attempt, she tried doing her father's famous move that made him the Yellow Flash; The Flying Thunder god technique.

"I no know the name, but here me go," Kasumi cheered as she attempted to perform the technique.

At this time, though, Minato came back to pick up his daughter…who he left behind to see her trying to use his move, "Awgh, that's my little- wait!" Minato noticed that she didn't perform the hand movements correctly, or applying the correct amount of chakra. As well, Minato didn't know what would happen. Either nothing, or something really bad.

"Now!" Kasumi cheered as she glow yellow and began to rise into the air, "Ummmmm, I'm flying- AAAAAAHH!"

As she was speaking to herself, she moved her arms in one direction, and flew at high-speed, Her jacket flew right off her along with her shoes and extra layer of clothing. Everything was left behind. Minato, now worried attempted to run after the girl in a futile attempt to catch up to her, but her speed was greater than his.

"This is my last hope," Minato shouted as he tried to teleport towards his daughter, only to find out after he warped, he ended up over a pond with Kasumi's marking tag on the surface of the water. Gravity could probably explain what happened afterwards.

Deprived of everything but her shirt, shorts and socks, the uncontrollable Kasumi floated around everywhere. She zipped left, and went full throttle to the right. Her speed was amazing, with no teleportation required. People, who didn't know better, thought it was Minato running through the village. As well, no one could hear Kasumi's yells for help as she traveled too swiftly for anyone to understand her. She eventually flew out of the village and kept flying for hours, not knowing where she'll end up.

Naruto, too busy to hear the conversation, was playing around with his ball. Kasumi turned to the shop keeper who brought over everyone's ramen.

"Yay!" Naruto cheered as he began eating his food, "I love ramen."

"Me too," Kasumi muttered while eating her bowl, "Well, I like anything to eat actually."

"I thought people don't speak while eating," Kakashi said as he stretched his arm to his bowl, "It's not showing good manners."

"They also say that it doesn't show good table manners to eat with your hands, but look at me," Kasumi said as she stuffed her face with the bowl held to her face and fingers pushing the food into her mouth. Once done with her mouth full, she placed the bowl down, "Sorry, I actually was raised in a place where we didn't have much to work with. No spoon, forks, or a plain old stick to eat with."

"Do you mind finishing your story to document your location," Kakashi asked after he was done swallowing his food.

"Do you mind me stuffing my face while speaking," Kasumi asked with a smile as Kakashi shook his head, "Then good."

"I'm getting dizzy!" Kasumi yelled as she finally slowed down over a patch of grass, "Pheewwww!" At that moment, her chakra levels were too low to keep her strange new jutsu working, and she quickly, but not so gracefully, flopped onto the ground, hitting her head on the root of a tree. "Oooooww!" She was too tired to move and had a splitting headache from the impact. She would be an easy target for any predators roaming the place, which was a large forest.

A few hours passed, and it turned out that Kasumi fell asleep while lying on the ground. She still couldn't move, and the headache was still there. But what was different was that footsteps were nearby. If it was a hungry wild animal, she is screwed. Luckily, it turned out to be two humans. One was an adult and the younger one was probably a little older than Kasumi. Her head was turning the right way to see them and the two stopped to look at the injured child.

"Do we come from trees daddy," the young boy asked as he laughed at his sarcastic comment. He was around 3 or 4, only wearing a bright orange suit to avoid being attacked by hunters. He held a dagger in his left hand, and wore a small cap over his head. His brown hair still showed and his brown eyes, but it was hard to tell with the hat shrouding half his face, "Well they make pretty girls for sure."

"It looks like someone abandoned her," the other man bent down to look at Kasumi better, "That, or she is from our little village and decided to climb up a tree." The man wore the same orange suit to avoid being mistaken for other animals. He looked like the kid, so he would be the father.

Wondering if the girl is alive, the boy picked up a nearby stick and poked Kasumi, getting a giggle from her. "Yep, she is still alive."

"Can you move?" the older man asked as Kasumi shook her head, "Do you mind us moving you to our camp?"

"Where's my daddy," Kasumi muttered as she tried to stand up, but had way too little energy to do so.

"Who's your father," The man asked as Kasumi tried hard to remember.

"Minato Namekaze," the girl replied as the man thought really hard.

"I don't know of anyone with that name in any of the nearby villages," the man said as he picked up the immobile Kasumi, "Let's see if the medic of our village can help you."

After a long search for anyone that fit the name from other villages in the area, Kasumi now knew she probably won't find her home village again. Noticing the distress of the young girl, the village chief offered her to stay with them until she was old enough to leave and find her home. But, before she could leave, she needed to get strong enough to survive.

"I ended up in a very distant village known as RiverRidge. It had a lot of residents, and a lot of people to learn from. They didn't have any troubles for most of my time there. But crops and water were plentiful, and animals weren't too hard to hunt down."

Kakashi tried to remember the village, and was surprised that Kasumi ended up flying almost 400 miles to another area, "That was a long flight, you must of have a lot of chakra reserves to keep a flight for that long."

"Yeah, I guess," Kasumi said as she started to play fetch with Naruto with one hand holding the ball, and eating what was left of the ramen in her other, "I ended up training for around 10 years. Raven and his father helped me train a lot. It turns out hunters received their names based off what animals they hunt. Raven being in charge to hunt many birds, but Ravens are what he caught a lot of."

"Let's see," the now-12-year-old Kasumi said as she checked out the clothes that were given to her, "One for normal use, one for bed, and one for swimming." Kasumi then put on the clothes meant for roaming around the village. She put on a red shirt, and a skirt formed from bird feathers that were weaved together by the local tailor. Not what a shinobi would wear, but it'll do for casual use.

"What is there to do today," Kasumi said as she checked a calendar on the wall of her small home. It only had a bedroom, a small kitchen, and a bathroom to work with. The residents were kind enough to donate some stuff to her house, but they didn't have much to offer. Most were poor or new to living on their own. Traders didn't come this far, but the town made their own living.

"Go get some food from the market, show Raven how I train, and then go hunting with everyone for a wild boar," Kasumi listed to herself as she headed for the door of her hut, "Sounds like a normal day."

After buying breakfast from the market place, she wandered over to the field, where she saw Raven trying to catch a rabbit who had a coin in its mouth.

"Come back here you pesky bunny," Raven said as the rabbit went down a hole, and Raven dived at nothing, "…Grrrr."

Kasumi couldn't help but to laugh at the situation, "How many coins has that rabbit took from you, 12, 30, or was it 50?"

"Were you going to show me some of your moves or were your planning to keep count of me and the rabbits victories?"

"Both," Kasumi laughed as she quickly thought of the numbers, "It's rabbit 62, you zero!"

"Just remember that I'm going to get back at you for that," Raven grinned as Kasumi stared down at him with a smile.

"You go try that," Kasumi mocked as she walked over to a sunnier area of the field, "We all know that any prank that you do to me never works. But if I get humiliated in any way, I'll finally go on a date with you."

Sensing that he probably has a low chance of pulling anything off with her advance movements and senses, Raven just took a fighting stance to spar with her.

An hour later, Kasumi promptly pinned the kid down after a lot of running around and dodging.

"Told you," Kasumi boasted as she got off Raven, who never had been defeated that quickly by anyone.

"Can we get to the part where you practice your moves without hitting me," Raven asked as he was catching his breath, "As much as I enjoy being close to you, this is too much!"

"Fine," Kasumi muttered as she began to practice the moves she remembered, and some she figured out how to do. First came the Rasengan. The years here gave her enough time to practice controlling her chakra in her palm and created the famous move.

"So, you made a light appear on your hand," Raven observed as Kasumi slammed the energy at a nearby rock, causing a good size explosion and turning the thing to rubble, "I stand corrected."

"And that's what I'll do to you if you try to peep in to my house while I'm taking a bath," Kasumi teased the innocent kid.

"I told you I had to deliver your groceries quickly," Raven said while blushing, "How was I supposed to know you were changing out of your clothes at the time!"

"I know…" Kasumi said as she prepared her next move, "I just enjoy how you react when I bring it up." Kasumi then brought up a barrier of energy, "I use this when the mosquitoes start biting around this time."

"What, no bug repellant?" Raven asked as he swatted away an annoying mosquito, "I'm going to need to get some from the shop after this."

"And now for a move I haven't tried for a while," Kasumi announced as she began to perform the Yellow Flash's move, "I completely forgot what it was called, but it letS me teleport!"

"What, so you're going to poke me awake every time and not get caught," Raven muttered as that is how his mornings are started every so often.

"How did you figure it was me," Kasumi asked, not noticing she did one of her hand signs wrong.

"Remember, you thought it would be funny to see the reaction I would have when I woke up and you were pretending to sleep next to me," Raven remembered as he shuttered on that thought, "I jumped off the bed at that moment."

"I probably have other ideas," Kasumi muttered as she hoped for her move to work. Sadly, her other move activated that she thought would never happen. She began to rise up into the air, and glow yellow, "Darn it! Remember, don't move your hands in any direction."

Raven looked up at the phantom figure, opened his eyes wide open, then looked at the ground where Kasumi was once standing, then back at Kasumi and had his mouth open.

"What's wrong," Kasumi asked as she was oblivious to what just happened, "Never seen someone fly before?"

"…I won the bet right now, let's leave it at that," Raven said as he quickly shut his eye tightly, having seen too much.

"Why?" Kasumi said as Raven pointed to the ground under her.

"I think your ghost trick can't turn anything that is touching you into your phantom form," Raven said as he awaited to hear Kasumi's reaction.

Let's say that the moment she looked down, the entire village could hear a scream of pure horror. All the children looked around for any monsters. Some thought that someone was getting killed. Others just ignored it and continued with their daily work.

"Don't look, don't look, don't look, don't look or I'll kill you Raven!" Kasumi shouted from above as she realized half her clothes ended up falling off during her phantom transformation. All being extra layers of clothing, or one's that don't make contact with the skin.

"Congratulations, you just did my job for me!" Raven said as he still kept his eyes closed before realizing another scream was heard, and then the impact of a now-not-so-well-dressed female landed on top of him. Kasumi's mental mind set of not moving her arms or hands was broken when she covered herself and plummeted to the ground in a solid form. Feeling very wrong, Raven through Kasumi off and turned the other way. The other retrieving her fallen skirt and half of her shirt.

"I…will…never…use …that…move…again," Kasumi muttered as she was done putting her clothes back on, "I'm done redressing."

"No, I'll just keep my eyes closed just in case," Raven muttered as he didn't want to see his face smashed in for staring.

"I'm serious, I'm already decent," Kasumi said as she forced the teen to stand up straight.

"Define decent," the boy muttered as he peeked open one eye to check and realized he was going to be all right.

"I think I trained enough," Kasumi said as she began to walk towards the village, "and since I lost my little bet, where do you want to go?"

"Wait, you were serious about that?" Raven asked as he followed the girl, "Well, I don't know, where do you want to go?"

"Well-" Kasumi was about to respond before a bunch of screaming was coming from the direction of the village, "What's going on?"

A man came running from the village, "Some shinobi arrived at the village, we need to evacuate!"

"Who invaded," Raven asked as the man began to catch his breath,

"I think they said they used to be ninjas from the Rock country. I don't know,"

"That's not a good sign," Raven remembered hearing that the Third Shinobi war ended recently and the ninja from the rock were strong, "So why are they here."

As on cue, a distant voice shouted from the village, "We need some food and supplies from you people, and we want all of it."

"Eh, just a bunch of hungry thieves," Kasumi said as she ran towards the village.

"Hey, where are you going," Raven shouted as Kasumi turned around.

"I'm the only person with any skills with fighting, don't you think I have a better chance of surviving and defeating them?"

"But you don't even know how to use some of your moves."

Turning around, Kasumi began to run towards the village again, "I need to see how strong I am. And don't worry, I always keep my word. I'll see what those guys can do, and you can sit here and think where we should go for our date."

Knowing he was going to lose this argument, Raven just wished her good luck for her unofficial mission.

The second part of this flashback will be done on the next chapter. I hope your enjoying the story so far. And thanks for the reviews and favorites! The next chapter will show the Yellow Phantom's first mission, and probably will make the enemies bring back bad Memories about the Yellow Flash after seeing what she can pull off!


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Off to see what happens next in the story. The only reason it is taking me a while to write these chapters is due to homework. Thank Dragon-wolf Tamer for the editing as my computer still can't perform spell check.

Chapter 3: The Phantom's First Mission

Kasumi's pace was speeding up after each step. She became faster and faster, reaching speeds no normal person could reach, even if they were shinobi. She began to fly over the land as the village was getting closer and closer-

"I'm here!" Kasumi shouted as she ducked, avoiding 2 kunai that were aimed for her head. She looked to see who did that, and saw two men in ripped rags of faded colors. They stared back at her and realized she is quick for one of these villagers.

"Hey look," one of the men said, "there's one that can actually dodge."

"Well, I hope she knows how to fight," the other ninja said as he performed a few quick hand sign, "Stone Pillar Strike!"

Under Kasumi's feet, the dust started to move, knowing it would be a bad idea to stand here, she leaped to the side, watching as a sharp stone spike emerged from where she stood. She ran at the ninja, planting her sandal into the man's face.

"What happened," the other ninja groaned as he looked at his dazed partner, "you usually dodge- Ow!"

"Pay attention next time," Kasumi smiled as she took their weapons, "5 kunai, 6 shuriken, 3 paper bombs, and a rice ball. Not much, but it will have to do."

"Land Wave Jutsu!" a voice exclaimed from behind Kasumi as she turned to see the foundation of the ground rising in front of her like a wave of water. Reacting quickly, she raced to the side of the attack, avoiding it, "Your extremely quick." Her assailant was a masked female ninja who was preparing another attack.

"You think so," Kasumi muttered as she ran right behind the woman, and surprising her as she lodged a kunai to the side of her neck, killing her, "I bet you didn't see that coming."

Most of the nearby villagers peeked out to see some of the ninjas either dead or unconscious. Wondering who did this, they noticed their adopted member to the group smashing a rasengan to another ninjas skull. With a silent prayer, most of them hoped that she would be enough to stop the invaders.

Deeper into the village, the leader of the small squad was an middle aged hooded figure who had strands of brown hair coming from the front. His clothes were in better shape compared to the others, and soon had another one appear right in front of him.

"What now?" the leader asked from the worried servant.

"I-I-I-I think the Yellow Flash has entered the village!"

"Yel-Yellow Flash!" the man became worried at the thought. The yellow flash was able to take out an entire attack squad in a few seconds. He had only 15 people with him, something the yellow flash could sweep away in seconds, "Where is he."

Confused, the servant looked back at him, "He? I thought it was a she?"

"She?" the Rogue leader stared confused at the ninja, "The Flash is a male."

"…Oh," the servant thought for a moment, "a girl is attacking us. I knew it couldn't have been the Yellow Flash, I would have been dead already. But she does have his speed and some of his moves, but I haven't seen her, well, flash."

Relieved at the thought the Yellow Flash wasn't here, he thought he should meet the intruder, "I'll deal with the copycat."

Kasumi now wondered where her speed was coming from. She never remembered gliding over the ground before at blinding speeds…minus the times in the phantom form. Though wearing a skirt is getting annoying for her as it kept rising above appropriate levels when running.

"Great," Kasumi thought as she pulled a length of rope from a dead ninjas body. She tied it around herself skirt, keeping it from flapping around, "if I'm getting a reward for this, I'm asking for a pair of pants." She noticed something coming at her from the side and quickly summoned up a barrier to block three large stone blades that were thrown at her.

"You really do know a lot of the Yellow Flashes moves," the leader of these ninjas said as he stepped from the shadows, "Luckily you don't seem like much to worry about from my point of view."

"Yellow who?" Kasumi asked as the man began to stare, "What are you staring at me for?"

"You don't know who the Flash is," the man said dumbfounded, "Me, the only one to survive an encounter with him, the Great Tera, leader of the last ninja squad sent over to attack! You mean to tell me you don't know the Yellow Flash!"

"I have no idea what your babbling about, but I'm going to smack you across the head with this pole," Kasumi said as she ran right next to the confused man, hitting him across the head.

"You even run as fast as he does, minus the flash," the general shouted as he fell to the ground.

"Flash?" Kasumi asked as she attempted to grab the man, "Does he have yellow spiky hair and runs at the speed of light?"

Tera rolled away from the grab, and stood up quickly, "That describes him, so you have heard of him."

Kasumi thought for a bit and wondered if she could get information from him if she restrained him. Though, with her quick moment of distraction, Tera was able to think of something to use on her.

"Earth Prison!"

In an instant, the ground around Kasumi rose as great walls of rock and dirt blocked all paths. Eventually, the light from above her head went away as a dirt roof appeared.

"What is this," Kasumi yelled as she tried to push down the walls, "I wasn't expecting the great leader of some group of rag tag grunts to just trap me here."

"Shut it," the man said from outside the stony asylum, "don't judge me like that! This is how I finish off my enemies."

"By boring them to death with your confused jabbering, and boasting while their stuck here?"

"I said shut it!" the leader sounded angry as he performed the second part of the jutsu, "Approaching Earth Jutsu!" As soon as the attack was shouted, the walls of the prison began to approach the girl.

"Of course," Kasumi muttered out loud, "Some villain needs to use one powerful move to take out one person, sounds like most of the books I read."

"Your annoying," Tera said from outside the crumbling prison, "But in about 15 seconds, the only thing you'll be doing is screaming as you are flattened into a door mat."

"Fifteen seconds?" Kasumi thought as she quickly went through her options of escaping the jutsu, "why give so much time to escape?"

"Blame gravity!" Tera said angrily as he looked around to see all his men and women dead, "well, I still have the back-up shinobi back at the nearby base."

Kasumi was running out of time, and leg, arm, and head space. If only she mastered her father's teleporting jutsu. Deciding that there was nothing else to lose by not trying, she tried to use the hand signs at blinding speed. Hoping for something good to happen, she activated whatever she performed.

"Hmmmm," Tera thought as the prison finally fell on itself, "She's the first person not to scream while being crushed to death. I should probably make note to have spikes extending from the wall to make sure next time."

"Hello Mr. Ego," a voice said from behind Tera as he turned around and gasped.

"What!" Tera shouted as he coward in fear on who was in front of him, "it's your vengeful spirit looking to haunt me for killing you! Please don't torture me for the rest of my life!"

"I would be vengeful if my clothes fell off when I used this jutsu," Kasumi said as she was glad she tied down her clothes onto herself, "and how the heck did you become leader of anything!"

"Jutsu?" Tera looked to see the ghostly figure of Kasumi send a Racengan at the poor sap, "GRAAAAHH!"

After watching the man fly into the nearest sharp object, impaling him, Kasumi forgot to ask him where the Yellow Flash, or at least the Leaf citizens lived. Kicking the corpse in anger, she surveyed the village, and freed any restrained villagers from their bonds.

"Their gone?" most villagers muttered as they wandered out of their hiding spots, "Whoever got rid of them deserves a celebration."

"I just realized that I'm still in my phantom form," Kasumi muttered as she dispelled the jutsu, landing on the ground in a heap, "who knew beating and mocking random enemies can get tiring."

"You actually did it!" Raven shouted as he ran closer to the village, "And there were no casualties to any villagers, but a lot to the other shinobi that invaded."

Kasumi turned her head to her friend, "What, you weren't expecting me to pull it off? They weren't that well organized, strong, nor sane."

"Errr, sort of…"

"That's very supportive of you," Kasumi mocked as she tried to stand up, "I over did it today, I can barely walk."

"Do you need any help?"

Kasumi turned to her friend again, "I said I could barely walk, not that I'm completely crippled or anything."

"Oh," Raven said as Kasumi became a bit upset, "Huh?"

"I thought you were a gentleman," Kasumi said as she fell to the ground, "I was just kidding when I said I could barely walk. I can't feel my legs for some weird reason."

"Your confusing sometimes, you know that," Raven muttered as he lifted Kasumi back onto her feet, "You were only gone for like 5, 10 minutes. Now you're tired, and are confusing me beyond what I was 10 minutes ago."

"I think that phantom move I did sucked the energy out of me," Kasumi yawned as she could barely move again, "but at least I know a bit how it works."

"What, you were able to keep your clothes on?"

Kasumi gave a hard glared at Raven, who became a bit frightened by her, "That, and I am able to fly through solid objects."

"Okay," Raven responded as he tried to keep Kasumi from falling onto the ground again, "So where do you want to go, home?"

"Hey, I still didn't keep my end of the little wager," Kasumi sleepily said as she yawned, "I still have to go on a date with you."

"In this condition," Raven said as random villagers were moving the dead bodies of some of the ninja Kasumi whipped out.

"Just pick a place with a chair, some food, and a map."

Raven stared at his wobbly friend, "Map?"

Kasumi stretched her arms for a bit, "Yeah, I think I might know where I come from thanks to the random yelling of "It's the Yellow Flash's doing" when some of the enemy shinobi examined the dead bodies of their comrades. I heard he's from the Leaf Village."

"And you think that "Yellow Flash" is your relative or something," Raven asked as he suddenly remembered something, "I know that man, he's known as Minato Namakaze. He's the hokage over at the Hidden Leaf Village."

"And when did you find this out," Kasumi stared at her friend as she tried to walk, "why wasn't I this tired when I used my Phantom Charge attack."

"Newspapers," Raven responded as he also heard what Kasumi just said, "You named your move already?"

"Yeah, I move abnormally quick while I'm a ghost. I could flash from one side of this village to another in a blink of an eye. I should know, I sort of fooled around at high speed when fighting their leader before scaring him."

"I have a map you can borrow," Raven added as another thought just hit him, "Wait, your leaving us already?"

Kasumi saw an empty bench to fall on and promptly plopped herself onto it, "It's not like I'm going to stay there or something. I just going to visit, and then come back."

"Are you sure, or are you lying," Raven said as he looked down at his weak friend.

"I wouldn't leave the people who raised me for 11 years," Kasumi said as she sat up straight on the bench, "I like to many of you to leave you guys forever. Though I could probably surprise my dad if he's there."

"I trust you enough to believe that," Raven said as he heard Kasumi's stomach growl, "Whoops, I forgot that we were going out somewhere."

"I'm just fine here," Kasumi said as she looked around, "Just buy two bowls of Ramen, and we'll eat here. I'll keep the bench warm."

"Wait, I'm paying for the food!" Raven shouted with a surprise.

"I said I would go out with you, not pay," Kasumi laughed as she yet again caused some misery, "I always thought it was the boyfriend's job to pay on dates."

"Yeah…wait, what did you just say?"

"What, the part about paying?"

"No, not that part, the other part," Raven said as Kasumi smiled.

"What, I like you especially more than anyone else here. This is another reason I'm coming back. Why can't I call you my boyfriend."

Blushing, Raven quickly ran to the nearest building to order the food. Kasumi, on the other hand, fell asleep on the bench she was on.

"So that is what happened to the missing ninjas from the rock village," Kakashi noted down as he wrote some important notes down about Kasumi's little story, "I guess the Rock nation will be happy to hear that their run aways are no longer causing any trouble anywhere."

Naruto was still too busy eating Ramen off Kakashi's plate. Kakashi didn't mine Naruto eating the rest of his food, but wished he didn't make some of it fall on his lap. Kakashi then realized something.

"You didn't return to your village."

Kasumi's face started to sadden, "About your comment on those missing ninjas, not all of them were gone. I actually did return back to the village after Minato died. I wasn't expecting to arrive at the village during the Ninetail attack, but I wasn't expecting Riverridge to be in ruins."

"There were others that held back," Kakashi noted as he caught a falling noodle, "How did you know it was more rogue Rock shinobi?"

Kasumi searched in her bag, and pulled out a sheet of paper, "This told me. It was a letter I found nailed onto a pole."

Dear Kasumi Namakaze, (Since your somehow related to the Hokage of the leaf)

Sorry about the mess here. It turns out that there were more rock shinobi that waited until you left this place to attack again. Since none of us could fight back, we resorted to fleeing this place for a new home. I would tell you where we went, but I have no idea where we're going.

Don't blame yourself for leaving us. No one knew that they were pretending to be rocks, even though it probably made since they are rock shinobi. Oh well, Unless you're going to look for us again, I guess you better go back to your real family in the Hidden Leaf. We went in many random directions, and covered our tracks for safety. Don't try to look for us.

Sorry I couldn't have taken you out on a second date,

Raven

P.S: I actually packed your stuff in a package under a tree. Good luck with your family.

"I'm sorry about-" Kakashi was about to say something as Kasumi cut him off.

"I know," Kasumi said as she looked down on the letter, "I also should have probably listened to him on not looking for their villagers. They ended up separating, and going in different directions. I found some of the residence in nearby villages, but no one knew who went where."

"That raps this up," Kakashi said as he closed his book with Kasumi's log in it, "the last matter of this meeting is this." Kakashi handed a pack of papers to Kasumi as she looked at the forms.

"These look like forms to sign up for the Ninja Academy," Kasumi examined as noticed something odd, "You gave me two forms. What's with the copy?"

"Considering that you have the use of ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and probably more, we need to register you into our list," Kakashi began to explain, "but, to become a shinobi, you must attend the Ninja Academy and graduate."

Kasumi stared at Kakashi with wide eyes, "Gra-Gra-Graduate!"

"Yes, you'll be attending school with Naruto when he is able to enter," Kakashi said as he stood up from his seat, "enjoy your days at the Academy."

"…" Kasumi just stared at the retreating figure as her jaw gaped open. Naruto went up to his sister and tugged on her hair.

"Aren't we going to sign me up to the Academy?"

Kasumi turned to her little brother and stared at the door, "Sure, let's go sign up."

A bit shorter than the previous one, but I'm a bit tired from school work. As well, the fight was pretty short, but there will be more to come soon. I just need to fight off the evil homework monster haunting my life, and get this computer repaired somewhere. It's starting to freeze a lot more.

Thanks for the reviews and support. I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as I have more time.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, it would be very different. (Maybe in a good way).

A/N: I'm dizzy, but that's not important. I have my spell checker working again, but I still hand it over to my partner in crime Dragon-wolf Tamer to catch the minor edits. (I had my entire dictionary resetted, and lost all the correct forms of most of the words I had to type in).

In this chapter, I'm making a few time skips to go over the mishaps in the Ninja Academy, up to the point where, to the best of Naruto's abilities, almost fails on graduating and is nearly killed. Enjoy.

As well, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving for anyone who celebrates it!

Chapter 4: School Days

Finally, it was time to head Naruto, and sadly, herself to the Ninja Academy. Why a 19 year old would be sitting in a class room with a bunch of kids was beyond her, but rules were rules. Kasumi would have also preferred to assist Naruto herself, but she wasn't even considered a genin, let alone a chunin or jonin. Naruto went under the guidance of Iruka. A strange guy, but he would have to do.

"Now to practice throwing weapons," the teacher said to the front of the class as everyone headed outside. As Kasumi exited, most of the young children muttered among themselves and pointed at the lady.

"She's a bit too old to be with us." "I don't want to know how many times she failed this class." "Isn't she supposed to be a jonin or chunin by now?" "She's too pretty." And "At least there are people that aren't better than us." Were comments that Kasumi shrugged off.

"Little runts," Kasumi thought as Naruto ran up to her.

"Hey sis," Naruto tugged on her shirt as she turned to the 7 year old blond. He picked up a practice kunai, and with a bit of shaking, threw it at the nearby target, sticking the blade onto the cardboard.

Kasumi clapped at her brother's efforts, "Very good Naruto," Kasumi then gave him a hug as she picked up a kunai herself. She easily hit the target on the bull's-eye on her first attempt. All the kids turned to whoever did that and were amazed to find out it was Kasumi. Wondering if she was a sensei in disguise, they quickly apologized to her.

Things were quite quiet after that. She was a lot more respected by the other students as she quickly excelled through the classes. She actually skipped a lot of stages of the academy and would graduate in the next year or so. But Naruto wasn't doing so well on the second year.

"Where's my little brother," Kasumi asked young Shikamaru who suddenly jumped from his nap.

"How would I know," Shikamaru yawned as his nap was ruined by the interruption, "do I look like his keeper?"

"Well, actually…" Kasumi was about to reply to that comment before remembering what she was going to say, "Well, you usually hang around him, the dog kid, and the other boys. You guys have been vanishing from classes lately."

Shikamaru groaned at the word class, "This junk they teach us is such a drag to learn and remember."

"Coming from someone who aces exams even though he sleeps all day," Kasumi barked as she heard something outside, "what was that?"

A few seconds later, a bunch of girls were heard screaming, and then the sounds of someone being mauled to death filled the entire building.

"Now I remember," Shikamaru said as he lifted his head off his desk, "he was planning to sneak into the girls changing room to see what was there compared to the boys room."

Kasumi warned her brother not to enter that room, and did he listen? She quickly ran out the door as Shikamaru resumed his nap.

"Pervert!" "Peeping tom!" "Jerk!"

"What! Did! I! Do!" Naruto shouted as more people piled onto him. Kasumi entered the room as quickly as she smelled the scent of blood.

"Quit it girls!" Kasumi shouted as everyone stopped what they were doing to Naruto. Many of the people were poorly wrapped in towels or robes while Naruto lay battered on the ground.

"He snuck in here looking like a girl," Sakura shouted as she gave Naruto another kick.

"Didn't you already have enough time to beat me senseless," Naruto wined as Sakura attempted to kick him again, but Kasumi intervened and deflected the incoming blow with her hands.

"Don't worry Sakura," Kasumi said as she lifted up her little brother, "Naruto and I are going to have a nice talk when we get home."

"Why do I feel like this is a talk I'm not going to enjoy," Naruto said as he was carried away from the changing room.

As Kasumi promised, she had a "talk" with Naruto on his behavior lately. It began with her throwing him against the wall.

"Ahhh, what was that for!" Naruto wined as he clutched his head with his hands.

"The way you have been acting lately," Kasumi shouted with disappointment present in her voice, "your grades and performance have dropped, and you have been skipping classes."

"Yeah but-,"Naruto was about to reply before Kasumi cut him off.

"But what?" She sneered as Naruto felt ashamed, "what was that about impressing me before?"

"…" Naruto didn't have an answer to that. He just stared down at his feet, "I was just curious."

"Sure," Kasumi said sarcastically as she fixed up the small room they were in, "I bet that the bet you made with your other friends for free ramen had nothing to do with it."

"EEERRMM," Naruto began to groan as he probably was going to get punished soon, "But I-"

"Forget it," Kasumi cut the blonde off before he said anything to try to excuse his previous actions, "you're just grounded for a month in this crevice of a room we were given by the hokage."

"Come on," Naruto wined as he stood up, "you're starting to act like you're my mother!"

"Well I'm the closest thing to one," Kasumi replied as she thought for a moment, "just stay here, I need to go check on something."

"Fine," Naruto groaned as he plopped himself onto his bed. Kasumi walked out of the room, and was out of Naruto's sight. He looked around the room for a bit. All it had were plain white walls, a picture frame of himself when he was little, his small bed, a table, and a window with a balcony on it.

"That's it!" Naruto thought as he formulated an escape plan in his mind. He had to go do something with the others and needed to get out of this closet. He pried open the window, stepped onto the balcony, and leaped onto the floor below. Not even his sister could keep him in one place for long!

Kasumi on the other hand spent some time in the living room, thinking. She looked around the room to notice all they had were a few chairs, a couch, a table, and a book or two scattered around the area. No pictures, no decorations, no anything. She would like to hang a picture of her former parents, but with Naruto around, the hokage had forbidden the idea. All she had was a random book to read, and her little brother. But now he's looking at her as a mother, though one that someone dislikes.

"What would mom do," Kasumi thought as she pulled out a very old picture she kept hidden in her sleeve. In truth, the hokage did say to keep any mention of Naruto's father being Minato, away from Naruto, but nothing was wrong with his mother. Especially if she lied and said this was an old friend of hers. The picture was one of Kushina's younger days as a student of the ninja academy. This picture was made after Minato rescued her from some shinobi that she wasn't told the details of what they were. Everyone was just happy for her safe return. Kasumi then pulled out a mirror she kept in a nearby bag and looked at herself and the picture. Same red hair, same eyes, somewhat the same face, minus her nose that looked more like it was Minato's, and almost the same build as her, though since this was a picture of her in her younger years, Kasumi was larger than her considering she is now twenty years old and the picture was of Kushina when she was 10 or 11.

"What would you do about Naruto mom," Kasumi muttered as she put the stuff on the table and sat back on the chair. After Naruto's previous fiasco, she was warned to keep him in line. Things weren't looking too well though with his behavior. She was too tired for this and quickly fell asleep.

Naruto, on the other hand, was having fun messing around town with a group of kids. They planned to sneak into the academy, and rig the doors to drop a bucket of water on the teachers who were the first people in the building in the morning. The cover of night helped hide them from the few guards around. Naruto was busy setting up his bucket over the main door of the building.

"Hehehe," Naruto thought as he could imagine the expressions on some of the instructor's faces as they were suddenly splashed on by the cold water. But to Naruto's dismay, someone was watching him from below.

"All done," Naruto said as he climbed down his stool and turned to see someone staring expressionlessly at him, "Errrr, uh-oh."

"What are you doing Naruto," Kakashi, who was on a patrol of the village asked as Naruto grew pale, "and does your sister know you're here?"

"Uhhh, this isn't what it seems," Naruto tried to explain as Kakashi, looking down at the poor sap, grabbed him by his wrists.

"You don't need to say anything," Kakashi said, as he dragged the 9 year old by his arm out of the building, "your friend's told me everything after I caught them. Let's just say you're probably going to be seriously punished when I bring you back home."

Naruto just had his eyes wide open. He knew how mad Kasumi got when extremely upset… or if you wake her up while she is asleep. If she's awake, maybe Naruto will live until tomorrow….

Back at the small apartment of the Uzumaki residence, Kasumi was now on her side snoring away. A knock on her door made her roll on her couch until she fell off, thinking she was on her bed. Her eyes quickly opened with a glare in them.

"Now who's insane enough to wake me up at this hour," Kasumi angrily muttered as she checked the time on a small clock. It was 2 in the morning, and she was having a nice dream involving her days back at her village. The knock was heard again from the front door of the room, and she opened it to spot Kakashi and a frighten Naruto.

Looking up, Naruto knew the stare she was giving the two. It was the stare of her being interrupted from her sleep and she didn't look happy at all.

"I caught him and a group of other kids rigging up traps at the Academy while on patrol," Kakashi explained while Kasumi looked down at her little brother, "I'll leave him with you as I need to disarm the traps." With that, Kakashi vanished off as Naruto was left alone with his unhappy and sleepy sister.

"Get inside," Kasumi muttered as the shivering blond did as he was told. Kasumi shut the door and headed to the nearby couch. Naruto followed her as he expected to not be able to sit down on his rear for the next few days. Kasumi turned around and motioned for Naruto to come. As he wandered over to his sister, she sat down on one end of the couch. Naruto decided to sit on the other end of the couch and stared timidly at his sister.

'Uh-oh, here it- huh,' Naruto thought as he noticed that her sister's expression went from one of sleepiness and anger to one of sleepiness and worry, "are you all right sis?"

"Why are you trying to get yourself in trouble all the time," Kasumi muttered as Naruto noticed her head drooped down onto the arm of the couch, "you were hunted down like an animal when you were little, and now that you're older, you are starting to cause problems around the village."

Naruto just stared at his sister for a while. For one thing, he wasn't beaten senseless like most parents would do to punish their children, but on the other hand, he started to feel guilty and extremely depressed.

"I really can't help you if the village decides to take you away from me if you keep misbehaving," Kasumi said muffled by the couch, "that was the terms of the agreement from the hokage when I decided to raise you."

"Wait, they would take me away from here?" Naruto asked as his sister lifted her head up, "wait, are you crying?"

"What does it look like I'm doing," Kasumi sniffed as tears rained from her eyes, "I was told last week if any more trouble comes from you, you'll be sent over to ANBU Headquarters and be trained and raised there. I also have to leave the village since the only reason I live here is because of you. You go, and I have to leave since I barely have any money to afford any house in this village."

Naruto just blinked at what he was told. Anymore screw ups from him, and he'll be taken over to an unknown place. And rumors from other students say that most people in the ANBU aren't that friendly. This just made him feel even worse on how he was acting. Before, he wanted to impress his sister, but now he was getting lazy at school, and was just screwing around. But he was never told that would happen.

"Please stop all this before it's too late," Kasumi begged as Naruto looked down.

"All right sis," Naruto responded as he stood up, "I'll start to focus more. I just realized in order to become hokage of the Leaf; I need to become one of their best ninjas. The first step is to graduate from the Ninja Academy, and I promise you, I will!"

Kasumi looked at her little brother, "Are you telling the truth?"

"I'm making an oath!" Naruto exclaimed as he grabbed his sister's hand, "I will make you proud now."

Kasumi held herself back from shedding more tears, "All right Naruto, I believe you. But you still have to stay grounded in your room."

"How long," Naruto asked as Kasumi smiled.

"Only for tonight," Kasumi responded as Naruto's eyes flared up.

"Really?" Naruto asked as his sister nodded, "thanks."

"I'm tired," Kasumi muttered as she headed to Naruto's room, "do you mind if I bunk in your room tonight to make sure you don't escape."

"I don't mind," Naruto said as he followed his sister towards his room.

After the talk Kasumi gave Naruto, he started to improve in his classes. He actually showed up to all of them, and studied hard. He spent less time with the other kids and stayed out of trouble. Things started to look up for the blond ninja. As well, Kasumi asked to be held back from graduating until Naruto does. She lingered around her final year until eventually; Naruto reached his supposed last year. Though, Naruto's mischievous side came back.

"Hehehe," Naruto giggled as he was in line to perform a transformation jutsu for the first part of the exam. Many students went up and performed different transformations, some of the instructor, other of other students.

"Please perform a transformation jutsu Sasuke Uchiha," the instructor said and Sasuke easily performed the technique, "Good work, you have passed this section of the exams."

Sasuke said nothing as he left the room. Naruto looked to see who was ahead of him. His sister was in front, along with a strange kid and Sakura.

"My turn," Sakura said as she wanted to quickly leave this line to follow Sasuke. The instructor was a bit surprised that she would run at him so fast."

"Please perform a transformation jut-,"the instructor noticed that Sakura already changed herself to look like Sasuke, "Errr, okay, you passed-"

"Bye!" Sakura said as she quickly went out the door Sasuke headed out of. Naruto wondered if Sakura did anything with Sasuke's transformation, but quickly shook away the disturbing thought.

"Please perform a transformation jutsu of anyone you know," the instructor asked as Hinata performed one, transforming into one of the people behind her.

"Do I really look this hot?" Kasumi teased as she noticed the image of her, "Wait here." Kasumi performed a transformation of Hinata, "hey, I'm you, and you're me!"

"You both pass," the instructor said as the two girls transformed back into their original selves.

"T-Thank you," Hinata said as she wandered out of the room.

'I got to see what Naruto had in stored,' Kasumi thought as the blonde went up to the instructor, "who the hell is that!"

"AAAAWWWWWEEEE," the instructor looked wide-eyed at the girl in front of him, "w-w-w-w-who are you?"

"Awe, can't you tell," the blond girl said as everyone noticed Naruto gone, "can't anyone tell?"

"…" Kasumi just stared at the person, and quickly ran up to her, smacking the girl behind her head. The jutsu dropped, and out of the smoke came Naruto Uzumaki.

"Ow," Naruto said rubbing his head, "I was just performing my Sexy transformation jutsu."

"You what!" Kasumi shouted as she began to strangle her brother in front of the remaining students.

"Errrr, should we help?" Kiba asked as his faithful partner was too busy staring to respond.

"Nah, that was a bit too much for a joke," Shikamaru stated as he enjoyed the mauling in front of him.

"Okay, as much as I enjoy watching this after what he did," the instructor said as Kasumi dropped her little brother on the ground, "enough is enough."

"Fine," Kasumi stomped off to the exit as Naruto was trying to get air back into his lungs, "I'll be in the shower room if Naruto needs me."

"What happened," Naruto asked after recovering. The instructor looked down at him.

"Well, you didn't quite pass and you really upset your sister with that stunt."

Naruto groaned, "Where did she go?"

"She headed off to take a shower in the girl's locker room."

"Thanks," Naruto said as he quickly ran out of the room. Shikamaru and Kiba just looked at each other.

You don't think Naruto will run right in there while most of the academy girls are changing?"

Shikamaru just thought of what might happen, "If he does, it might be the last time we see him alive after the beating he's going to get from all those women."

Naruto arrived to the entrance of the girl's locker room/changing and shower area. He needed to go apologize to his sister, and decided that his Sexy jutsu plus some edits to it might get him inside unnoticed.

"I hope this works," Naruto said as he activated his jutsu. He put a towel around her head and stepped inside.

Kasumi was sitting on a bench with the showerhead running. She didn't mind having her towel around her at the time, nor that it is getting soaking wet. She just needed to cool down after what Naruto did today, and yesterday. She heard he defaced some of the hokage faces on the monument. Iruka had to give a convincing reason why Naruto shouldn't be sent away for doing that, and told her later that day. She said nothing to Naruto since she was way too upset hearing that.

"Hello everyone," a voice was heard saying as many people turned their heads to the masked and blinded girl stumbling around the room. The 23-year-old Kasumi stared at the new person with some curiosity, "could anyone tell me where Kasumi Uzumaki is?"

"Over here," Kasumi shouted to the person as she noticed where the voice came from and stumbled in that direction. Little did the person know, a bar of soap was on the ground.

"AAAAAAHH!" The girl yelled when she stepped on and slid into a wall. After that, the jutsu and towel mask was dropped, and Naruto stared dazed around the room. Kasumi just stared at her little brother in shock, and noticed the getup he had. If he was going to sneak inside, he wouldn't have had his vision blocked if he was going to peep on some of these girls, but it turned out that the others reacted on impulse, and screamed their lungs out.

"This isn't good," Kasumi said as all the girls in the room ganged up on the blond who still was looking dazed at everything. "Stop!"

Everyone turned to Kasumi who got up from her seat and turned off the shower, "If he was trying to take a peak of us, why did he blindfold himself in the first place?"

\The females in the room thought for a moment, and one of them reapplied Naruto's makeshift blindfold. Kasumi, putting on her spare clothes and gathering her stuff, guided her little brother out of the room.

Many people were amazed to see Naruto unharmed, and in his actual state. Kasumi guided him out of the building and removed his blindfold.

"Mind telling me why you did that?" Kasumi asked as Naruto looked down at his feet.

"I wanted to apologize to you," Naruto said as Kasumi looked around for a bit.

"All right," Kasumi said as she studied his face, "but next time wait for me to get out of the locker room and let me cool off a bit."

"All right," Naruto responded, but he didn't have the courage to tell Kasumi that the instructor gave him a really low grade for the transformation, or that if he doesn't get a perfect grade on the cloning section, he'd fail the graduation exam. Also, he didn't want to tell her that he has never perfected a transformation jutsu. Naruto began to feel miserable.

"I'm going to drop you off to Iruka sensei Kasumi stated as Iruka suddenly came out of nowhere.

"Hello Naruto," Iruka said as Naruto looked up at his sensei.

"Hey!" Naruto said with excitement. Finally, someone that he could explain everything to over a bowl of ramen, "I need to tell you something."

"Want to do it over a bowl of ramen?" Iruka asked as Naruto jumped at the idea, "Let's go!"

The two headed over to the ramen shop as Kasumi watched them leave. She needed to go somewhere to release her sorrows for a bit. She was already told by one of the female instructor's that Naruto had a high chance of not graduating if he failed the next part.

"Why is everything going down hill," Kasumi thought as she decided to head home.

Meanwhile, Mizuki was trying to figure out a way to retrieve the Secret Scroll of Sealing for Orochimaru. If they found out he stole it, they would be hunting him down like an animal. Someone would have to do it for him, but who would be stupid enough to do so.

"Mizuki," one of the instructors of the academy approached him as he turned to see him holding a stack of papers.

"Yes," Mizuki responded as the stack was placed on top of his desk.

"These are the results of the first part of the graduation exams; I thought you would like to see them." With that, the instructor left to quickly finish up some errands around the school. Mizuki looked on the first paper on the stack.

"Naruto Uzumaki," Mizuki spouted out with deep rage, "that demon brat." Mizuki looked down to see his information and realized that he was guessed to fail the exams. Mizuki chuckled at the misery the boy must have as an idea hatched in his head.

"Why not use this to my advantage," Mizuki thought as he thought of the outcome, "I tell him that getting the scroll is another alternative of the exam, and if he steals it, I'll just make a copy, return the original and blame it all on the kid. That or I can finally kill the brat while he's in the act of stealing the scroll."

Mizuki began to organize his thoughts and planned what to say, and when to do it. He stood up from his desk, and wandered out of the room to find Naruto.

A/N: I'm going to end the chapter here. I'll start off the next chapter with Mizuki tricking Naruto in stealing the scroll. How will the story change with his sister in the picture, I don't know yet! *Smile*

As always, review and stayed tuned for the next chapter.

"… this is a story Smash Knight 23, not a show," –Dragon-Wolf Tamer


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Why can't I have a voice say this at super-fast speeds like in car commercials.

A/N: With a new person on the scene, and my constant need to make chapters longer than what the average person would do, this chapter will probably not be as long as the others, but longer than if I was rewriting the first episode of Naruto.

Chapter 5: An Ability Now Mastered

"You really don't want to upset your sister," Iruka sensei responded as he consumed more of his ramen. Naruto was actually too unsettled to eat. For the first time in Iruka's life, Naruto actually turned down ramen. This gave the portent that Naruto is upset.

"And I promised her I would pass," Naruto replied as he stared at his bowl of ramen, "but I don't know what to do. I do really badly when it comes to clones."

"Yeah, you over do it with your chakra when you try to make one that it is unstable."

"I can't help it; I end up exhausting myself trying to keep a clone together."

Iruka noticed Naruto clenching his fist, "Calm down Naruto, random spouts of anger will not help you."

"You're right," Naruto said, calming down, "if you don't mind Iruka, you can have my ramen. I need to go take a walk around the village."

Iruka nodded as Naruto stood up from his chair. Kakashi, who was nearby, came over to Iruka.

"So he's having problems with the graduation exams?" Kakashi asked as Iruka leaped at the suddenness of his arrival.

"Don't scare me like that!" Iruka said, nearly knocking over his bowl of ramen Naruto donated, "but that's the issue right now."

"Well, I probably need to find Kasumi to see if she knows or has any idea what to do," Kakashi said as he ran out of the store in look for the red-headed woman.

Naruto was wandering around the roads and buildings. Even if he trained and practiced, the clones wouldn't come out right or at all. He would surely fail the exams.

"What am I going to do," Naruto muttered as he placed his hands over his face in frustration. Though, when he pulled his hands away from his face, Mizuki was right in front of him. "AAAAHH!"

"Hello Naruto," Mizuki kindly greeted as Naruto recovered from his sudden fright, "may I ask how you're doing?"

"Not that well," Naruto responded as Mizuki smiled on the inside, "I'm probably going to end up screwing up the exams."

"Why?" Mizuki asked as Naruto looked at him, "Clones aren't your thing or something?"

"Yeah," Naruto responded as he dreaded tomorrow, "no matter what, I can't perform a simple clone jutsu."

"Well," Mizuki said with a bit of hope in his voice, "what if I told you there might be a way to pass tomorrow's exam?"

"Does it involve hard work and believing in myself," Naruto asked as Mizuki stared at him, "I already tried that, and it didn't work."

"well, I think your problem is that you expend too much chakra in making clones," Mizuki began to explain, "what you need to solve your dilemma is a cloning jutsu that requires that level of chakra. I'm probably not supposed to tell you this; this is something that students have to find out on their own."

"Tell me what!" Naruto exclaimed as Mizuki knew he was at the palm of his hand.

"Well, there is an alternative to the exam," Mizuki began to explain again, "it involves sneaking into the Hokage tower, and taking one of the scrolls that is assigned to them. And if successful, the person will automatically graduate, and you can take a peek at the scroll you were supposed to take."

Not knowing that this probably goes against what ninjas were supposed to do when handling secret documents, and the fact it wasn't another way to pass, Naruto immediately jumped at the opportunity, "I'm in!"

Mizuki was proud at what he was able to accomplish, "Good, the scroll you must locate is known as the Scrolls of Seals, and another that contains a few special jutsus, one being the Multi Shadow Clone jutsu."

"Got any idea what they look like, or where in the tower I should look," Naruto asked as Mizuki came prepared.

"I'm happy you asked," Mizuki said as he pulled out a map and a document, "the map should lead you to where the scrolls are located. This document in my other hand contains the titles of the scrolls you might want."

"Great!" Naruto shouted as he took the things, "I'll quickly go retrieve it now!"

"Good," Mizuki responded as Naruto ran off to his destination with renewed hope. Though, Mizuki planned to crush that hope into mere fragments.

Kasumi was sitting near a river that was located not too far from the village. She took off her shoes and socks, and had her feet in the water. She looked down at her reflection in the water with a depressed and miserable face. She didn't care what went by her feet, whether it be a leaf, or a random fish. Nothing mattered if everything went horribly tomorrow. Kasumi still wondered why she agreed to the terms set by the hokage.

"I have nowhere else to go if I'm kicked out of here," Kasumi thought as a light breeze blew right at her, "I'll have no idea what'll happen to Naruto, and I'm not allowed to ever return in failing to raise him."

From her reflection, a fish's tail popped out of the water for a moment, but quickly went away. This, however, broke her attention from the water. Kasumi looked up into the sky to see it was still daytime. She could linger here for a while before it starts getting dark, and she'll have to look for Naruto, probably for the last time.

She went back to her reflection and thought for another duration of time. She began to think what she'd become no matter the outcome. Even if Naruto passed or not, she would have to go first. She would become a ninja no matter what, but she only did this for two reasons. The first and more important reason was that she needed to keep an eye on her little brother, and becoming a shinobi would help. Though, if her little brother failed, this reason wouldn't even matter. The second reason was that it wasn't legal to learn and master the art of a shinobi without being certified. Doing so would make her a rogue shinobi, and be banned from all villages. That wasn't a pleasant thought, considering her former village was the only one that would keep her secret from society. Other villages would gladly use her to attack other neighboring villages. This line of thought would probably have been different if she stayed with Minato. In truth, she didn't want to become a shinobi for any village. She actually want to live a well-off life she planned, one that probably would have unfolded if she never left her village in the first place.

"Funny," Kasumi thought as she splashed the water with her legs, "most people that are not skilled would do anything to become a ninja. I'm probably the first skilled person to leave it all behind for something more simple and involving less combat and slaughtering."

Kasumi did enjoy her abilities, but only for fun, friendly sparring, and defense. She never wanted to be sent to kill someone, that wasn't how she wanted to make a living. Her actual goal was to start a shop… as her former village didn't have many, and sell food or something from a small farm. Maybe raise a family without risking her life every time, which usually brings the end of one parent or another to most families with parents who are, or were, shinobi, like Minato and Kushina. Nothing but bad outcomes and pain come from being one of them.

Kasumi began to think about Naruto again. She wondered what would have happened if everyone didn't tamper with the tailed beasts. Maybe her parents would be alive along with many of the lost lives from that attack, or Naruto wouldn't have been considered a monster. Who knows? She looked up to noticed she had been sitting here longer than she thought, and decided it was time to head back.

"I guess you were already informed," a voice said from behind the red-headed girl as she turned to see Kakashi. All she did to respond was nod, "sitting here won't get anything accomplished, will it?"

"I don't know what to do," Kasumi responded as she put her shoes back on, "I tried working on his clones for the past month, but no progress."

Kakashi began to think, "I heard he over does his clones with too much chakra, and I may have a solution to that."

Kasumi stood from her spot, "And that would be…"

"I could teach him the Multi Shadow Clone jutsu, a cloning jutsu that requires a lot of chakra to perform."

"And you didn't tell me this earlier because…?"

"I wasn't aware of his situation," Kakashi said turning to leave, "let's locate your little brother before it gets too late."

With a bit of renewed hope, Kasumi followed the former ANBU.

"Great!" Naruto thought to himself as he browsed through the scrolls. It wasn't too hard to enter. Naruto was allowed to enter the Hokage's Tower whenever he wanted, and around this time, there are very few guards keeping watch. Naruto easily snuck past all of them, and was now trying to find the scrolls he needed.

"The scroll of Seals," Naruto read as he quickly took the document. As well, he found a few other scrolls. He looked through most of them, and found the one for the Multi Shadow Clones. He only read through that one, and left the others sealed. With what he needed found, Naruto began to escape the tower. He exited the room, and began down the hall. He saw a patrol guard heading down the same hallway. Naruto frantically looked around for a place to take cover in, and noticed a chair to hide behind. Quickly, he lunged behind the chair and awaited the person to move past Naruto.

Luckily, the guard didn't notice anything, and continued to walk. Once Naruto couldn't hear anything anymore, he continued down the hall, and noticed a window. Looking out, he saw no one was nearby, and decided it might make a quick and easy exit. Opening the window, Naruto climbed onto the small platform sticking out of the outside wall, and sealed it. Afterwards, he leaped from his perch onto the grassy ground. Naruto looked around to see if anyone saw anything and decided to just sprint out of the area through the nearby woods.

"I'm finally going to pass this exam!" Naruto excitedly thought as he began to run.

"Hey Iruka!" Kasumi shouted to the sensei of her little brother. Iruka turned around to spot the person he thought he heard, "have you seen Naruto?"

"Actually, I've been trying to find him all over the place," Iruka responded worriedly, "I received word that some of the scrolls were taken from the tower and Naruto's been gone all day."

"Wait," Kasumi said as she began to put some things together in her mind, "are you saying that he might have taken them?"

"Probably," Iruka responded as Kakashi arrived to where the two were speaking out on the village's street. "An order to hunt down Naruto was given right now to some ANBU troops," Kakashi informed as the two became worried, "After a quick investigation, they found some traces of Naruto's chakra in the area, and his fingerprints all over the scrolls."

"We need to find him then," Kasumi said as she activated her Phantom Charge, "he probably went through the woods to avoid being detected by anyone."

"I'll search the area around there," Iruka said puffing away.

"I'll try to convince the Hokage and ANBU to drop some of the charges on him," Kakashi informed as he puffed away as well.

"Why can't I do that?" Kasumi thought as she flew towards the woods, avoiding anything to avoid draining her chakra too much.

The meeting area was simple enough. Naruto would find Mizuki right outside of the woods. Once he handed over the scroll, he would then perform the Shadow clone jutsu, and pass the exams from Mizuki.

Mizuki noticed the blonde approaching him and prepared to follow the orders given to him. Subdue Naruto and say the scrolls were lost in the woods.

"Hey Mizuki- WWWOOWWW!" Naruto shouted as he narrowly avoided a shuriken from the man, "what was that for!"

"I'm just doing what I was told thief," Mizuki said as he chucked another giant shuriken at the blonde. Naruto avoided the spinning blade projectile again and looked confused at the man.

"But I did as you told me," Naruto said in confusion as Mizuki began to laugh, "what's funny!"

"What are you talking about," Mizuki responded as Naruto began to think he was tricked, "I said no such thing."

"Then why did you tell me to steal these scrolls," Naruto demanded to know as he stomped his right foot into the dirt, "you said this was another way to pass the graduation exam."

"Surely anyone in their right mind wouldn't let a lowly demonic scum like you go through their collection of forbidden scrolls," Mizuki began to laugh at how easy Naruto fell for his ploy, "there is a reason they are marked forbidden you know."

"Demonic!" Naruto shouted in disgust, "The only demon here is you!"

"Are you sure about that Naruto?" Mizuki asked as the kid stared at him, "Didn't you wonder why many people hate you?"

"Errrr," Naruto began to think of a response for that question, "I never knew why."

"Well," Mizuki began as he reached for another shuriken , "You have the dreaded Kyuubi inside you, also known as the Nine tailed Fox that nearly destroyed the entire village, that is why everyone had shunned you, and tried to kill you."

Naruto just stared at Mizuki dumbfounded. Everything that went on in his childhood was because of a demonic fox inside him. Naruto couldn't believe what he heard and just stood there shock. He didn't notice the giant shuriken Mizuki had in hand.

"And let me do many people a favor and kill you now!" Mizuki shouted as he through the weapon at Naruto, who just stood there, motionless.

Kasumi was busy flying through the woods as she attempted to locate the blonde ninja. She had a growing feeling inside her that something wasn't right. In her mind, she knew something bad was going to happen to Naruto. She became more and more frantic with her search from within the woods. She had no luck what so ever.

Kasumi closed her eye and began to think where Naruto would be. What she was now wondering, though, was the fact her mind began to fog up.

"Huh," Kasumi thought as an image formed. She saw that someone was standing in place as an object was going towards the human. Kasumi wasn't able to tell what the object was, or who the person was, but the image became clearer and clearer. Eventually, she formed a slow-moving image of what was about to happen to…

"Naruto!" Kasumi shouted as the image of a shuriken was shown heading towards a frightened and shocked Naruto. She couldn't reach him in time to block it, but something inside her snapped, and she lost control of her hands. At an amazing speed, she performed quick hand signs, and activated a jutsu she never pulled off. As soon as it was done, a flash of light enveloped Kasumi, and she vanished from her spot.

"Naruto!" Iruka shouted as he quickly leaped in front of the boy. He planned to block the blow for Naruto, and clenched his eyes closed. Though, waiting and waiting for some to happen, Iruka felt nothing hit him.

"Hmmm," Iruka thought as he now heard the Shuriken crash into a tree right in front of him, and opened his eyes, "what the…"

"How did you master that jutsu!" Mizuki exclaimed as he saw the fourth's own jutsu plus Kasumi's own Phantom Charge used; "Only the Yellow Flash could have done that.

Naruto, Iruka, and of course, Kasumi, all had a pale tinge to them. Kasumi had her hands on both of them and glared at Mizuki.

"Don't you notice a resemblance to someone," Kasumi asked as Mizuki just stared and shook his head, "oh well, that's not important now."

Iruka was amazed. For one thing, Kasumi was able to perform the fourth's signature move. But another, even more amazing feat was that she did it without any seals. Normally, a person would only be able to teleport to a place if it had a seal on it, but Kasumi pulled it off without one.

"Sis?" Naruto looked at his glowing sister as she lunged at the stunned man. Though, unlike Naruto, Mizuki wouldn't stand there like a statue, and moved out of the way of the punch. Kasumi just quickly turned, and materialized her leg in order to land a heavy kick onto Mizuki. The man went flying towards a tree, but decided to land on his feet…standing on the tree.

Naruto just stood there amazed at what his sister could do. She never told him she could pull this off. Naruto didn't notice that without his sister's touch, though, he became solid again. He just watched in awe at how fast she moved, and how strong she was.

Mizuki was getting a proper beating from the phantom. She kept flurrying him with blows, and he eventually found himself backed up into a tree. He noticed the woman about to charge at him for a finishing blow. He had to move, and it had to be now. As soon as his legs were able to move, he side-stepped Kasumi, who went from very angry to surprised.

"No, no, no, no-"Kasumi shouted as she couldn't stop herself. She went right through the tree, unharmed at first, but her Phantom Charge quickly vanished, and she fell to the ground with nearly any energy left to move, "Not this again."

"Huh," Naruto said as he suddenly saw his sister breathing heavily on the ground, "what just happened?"

"I think her jutsu damages and depletes her chakra whenever she sends herself through something solid," Iruka quickly responded as he analyzed what could have happened, "Watch out!"

"Erraa," Naruto grunted as Iruka pulled the blonde kid down to avoid another shuriken being tossed. What Naruto noticed, though, that another grunt was heard, but one of pain. He dreaded to look, but stared at his sister, who now had a shuriken lodged deep in her leg.

"How did I miss," Mizuki shouted as he planned to hit her at her heart, "Oh well, her blood loss from that shuriken should keep her down for me. Now it's time for you two."

"Why would you do this Mizuki!" Iruka demanded as Mizuki smirked.

"Do you really want to know?" he asked before he noticed Naruto step forward with a deep glare in his eye.

"Kasumi!" Naruto shouted as he charged at the traitorous instructor, "you'll pay for doing that!"

"You were never one to listen well Naruto," Mizuki said as he threw another shuriken at the charging blonde kid.

"Naruto, stop!" Iruka shouted as he noticed Naruto performing a series of hand signs that he recognized, "is he going to-"

"Multi Shadow Clone jutsu!" Naruto shouted as a horde of Narutos appeared. One of the clones took the blow of the shuriken, and vanished, but there still was a small army of clones.

"Great…" Mizuki thought worriedly as he saw the clones, "how did you master that so quickly- AAAAAAAAHh!"

After the mauling the Naruto horde handed to Mizuki, he finally laid defeated on the ground with many bruzes and wounds.

'You probably over did it there Naruto,' Iruka thought as remembered about Kasumi, "how is her condition?"

Naruto looked at his fallen sister. She was unconscious on the ground, with a large stream of blood pouring from her leg. Things weren't looking too good for her.

"How could I let this happen," Naruto grieved as Iruka tried to do what he could for Kasumi, "I thought I was supposed to protect those who mean the most to me!"

"It was unexpected," Iruka tried to calm down Naruto as he tried to seal the wound around shuriken blade. He knew removing the blade may cause even more blood to spill out of her leg, "what you sister needs is better medical attention. Try to get some medics over here now."

"No need."

Iruka and Naruto turned to see a group of ANBU, medics, and Kakashi at the scene. The ANBU troops were restraining Mizuki as Kakashi and the medics came over to where Kasumi, Naruto, and Iruka were at.

"I received a tip from a villager that Mizuki was speaking to Naruto before he vanished for a while. Mizuki was also missing at the time, and we assumed he was involved."

The medics went over to where the group was, and noticed the large pool of blood on the ground. Already seeing the shuriken still in her leg, the medics used their healing abilities to patch Kasumi's wound up. Though, another problem was still occurring.

"She has lost a significant amount of blood due to the shuriken hitting a spot where it severed a lot of veins," one of the medics informed the group, "we may need to take her to the hospital immediately to give her better care."

The medics quickly prepared Kasumi for quick transfer to the hospital as they placed her on a board they brought. Once she was properly secured, they puffed out of the area.

"I need to go see her," Naruto said as he dashed off in the direction of the hospital. Iruka and Kakashi both stared at each other, and then followed the blonde.

After a bit of running, Naruto finally arrived at the ANBU Headquarter hospital. He bursted through the front door, and quickly rushed over to the front desk.

"Welcome," the receptionist greeted as Naruto panted, "is there someone you need to see."

"Do…you…know…where…Kasumi…Uzumaki…is?" Naruto asked as the receptionist looked through her information and located the person that was asked for.

"Here she is," the receptionist said as she placed her finger on the name, "she's in room 215, second floor."

"Thanks," Naruto shouted as he headed towards the staircase that was nearby. Soon, two more people entered the front door.

"If you want to know where a blonde haired kid with an orange jumpsuit ran off to," the receptionist said as the two men looked around, "he went to room 215."

"Thanks," Iruka responded as they headed up the staircase.

Naruto found the room he was looking for after dodging a cart a nurse was moving. He stepped inside to find a nice, quiet room with a sleeping Kasumi…

…well, she was sleeping, but one of her eyes snapped open in anger as Naruto realized he just disturbed his sister while she's sleeping. Luckily, she dropped the glare, and sat up in the bed she was in.

"Those ANBU medics work fast," Kasumi said as she gave a yawn, "they even fully healed my wound with no scarring. I would show you, but that involves removing my pants."

"You're all right!" Naruto said as he jumped at his sister, knocking her down while giving her a hug, "I'm sorry for dragging you into this."

"I'm sorry for getting myself hurt like that," Kasumi responded as she returned the hug to her little brother, "I saw the shuriken heading for you and Iruka sensei. You needed to dodge that, and not focus on the blade that was heading for me."

"But what kind of shinobi am I if I let those who I love get hurt," Naruto said as he clenched his fist and sheds of tears began to rain from his closed eyes, "what kind of shinobi am I for doing that!"

"Don't forget though," Kasumi said as she placed a hand on her brother's back to calm him down, "you're still learning, and will eventually be able to fully defend everyone you care about." Kasumi thought for a bit. 'Something I should reflect on more…' Kasumi began to really think what it meant to become a shinobi of Kanoha. Maybe it is something honorable, and not the murderous, cruel tyrants she thought they were.

Naruto looked up at his sister, "You're right! All I need is to get better. I swear, I will pass that graduation exam and become someone who will defend everyone they care about-"

"And pass you have," Iruka said as Kasumi and Naruto turned to see Kakashi and Iruka standing at the doorway, "let me be the first to congratulate you both on becoming genin of the Leaf."

Kasumi and Naruto just stared as Iruka and Kakashi both approached the two. They quickly placed something on each of their heads, Iruka having an easier time than Kakashi as he had to deal with long red hair getting in the way. As they were done, Naruto and Kasumi both looked at each other with their headbands that signified them being ninjas of the Leaf.

"You will be placed in your teams once the others take the exams," Kakashi informed as Naruto gave a loud yell of victory.

"All right!" Naruto shouted as he tried to give his sister a high five, though, he ended up smacking her across the face, "Whoops."

Not minding the hand-shaped bruze to her head, she returned the high five to her brother's face, "Good job Naruto."

Naruto rubbed his face, "I know you were just playing around, but that hurts!"

"Sorry, I couldn't resist," Kasumi smiled as she tried to get her hair free from the headband with the Leaf symbol on a metal plate, "I guess you kept your promise after all this madness."

"Good job you two," Iruka said as he pulled out his wallet, "why don't I order some ramen to celebrate the occasion."

Kasumi looked at Iruka with excitement, "We're starving!"

'Hunger must run in the family,' Kakashi thought as the two puffed out of the room to retrieve the ramen, and to discuss about Naruto. Who, for now, had forgotten about the Kyuubi.

As the two waited for the ramen, Iruka explained to Kakashi what happened.

"Mizuki told Naruto what he had hidden inside him," Iruka began to speak, "I'm not too sure if Naruto believed it or not, but the look on his face probably meant that he believed it."

"So he now knows," Kakashi said as he thought of what to do, "I guess there is no point in hiding it from him. I was told I would get Naruto if he passed the graduation exams, and I will need to speak to him about the Fox."

"Do we still keep his heritage a secret from him though," Iruka asked as Kakashi nodded, "Why?"

"He's already learned one huge secret of his life," Kakashi said as he noticed the ramen was ready, "we don't need to shock him with another one."

"You're probably right," Iruka said as he paid for the ramen, "Let's take these bowls over to those two before they end up lurking around the hospital for food."

"Your right," Kakashi said as he picked up a bowl, and the two puffed away.

You see, longer than it needed to be, but words are supposed to be longer than the movie I always thought. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and the slight change I made along with the extra part in the hospital.

Thanks for liking this story a lot, and remember to thank Dragon-wolf Tamer for helping me in editing this story, and giving me the idea.

"I don't know, you people don't even read the author's notes do you?" –Dragon-Wolf Tamer


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I need to repeat myself, I'm going to need to hire someone to say it for me.

A/N: Does anyone read these? Oh well, a bit of a warning. Eventually chapters for this story will halt due to large projects and papers. (Want to manage a story while researching a 20 page paper on the Great Depression?) That, or I'll just shorten the chapters for a while. After that, though, I should be able to type even more since the winter break will be coming soon. Thank my friend Dragon-wolf Tamer for randomly editing my story.

Chapter 6: No more Exams!

Naruto and Kasumi didn't do much the next day. Kasumi was released and told to rest and eat more to regain more blood. So, after threatening Naruto not to wake her up, they slept the entire morning. Once they woke up, they headed to the Ninja Academy to see who made it out a genin.

'Who do I recognize,' Kasumi thought as she scanned the crowd, "hey Hinata!"

Said person turned to Kasumi and approached her. Kasumi noticed the headband on her head and smiled, "Hello Kasumi, how are you doing?"

"A bit weak after yesterday's fiasco," Kasumi replied as she stretched her arms, "I'm gathering random people I know to accompany me and Naruto for a celebration at the ramen shop, want to come?"

At the mention of Naruto, what little calmness Hinata had suddenly vanished, "S-S-S-Sure, b-b-b-but how did you graduate?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Kasumi replied as she remembered the somewhat humiliating screw-up from last night, "it looks like Kiba made it through as well."

"I heard my name," Kiba shouted from within the crowd of students and approached the pair, "Akamaru and I easily passed that exam."

"What happened to his headband then," Kasumi pointed at Akamaru, who just stared at Kasumi.

"They didn't have one for him," Kiba answered as Akamaru whimpered.

"Well, do you want to go get some Ramen or something," Kasumi asked as the two jumped at the mention of food, "Great!"

"Ramen?" another voice shouted from within the crowd. Soon, Choji exited the crowd, knocking over a few other people in his way, "I want to join!"

Kasumi began to chuckle, "Sure…" Kasumi could only imagine how much the bill will come up to after everyone's done. Kasumi continued to scan the crowd to see Naruto speaking to Shikamaru, who to Kasumi's surprise, stayed awake long enough to pass the exam. "Hey you two, gather some random friends of yours and let's head off to the ramen shop!"

"All right," Shikamaru responded as Naruto quickly gathered some people. Soon, the group consisted of Kasumi, Naruto, Hinata, Kiba, Akamaru, Shikamaru, Shino, Choji, Ino, and Sakura. Sakura wanted to invite Sasuke, but he declined the offer.

"I'm going to warp everyone there," Kasumi announced as everyone stared at her in confusion, "just grab each other's hands or paws."

Everyone just did as they were told. Hinata's hand was shaking a lot as she was holding Naruto's, Shikamaru was having problems holding Akamaru's wet paw, and Sakura was angry that Sasuke wasn't here for this. When everyone was ready, Kasumi performed her father's move, and a bright flash of light blinded the other students as everyone vanished from the group.

"And here's the-GLUB!" Kasumi announced before she, and the others in the group, plummitted into the nearby river Kasumi spent most of her day at yesterday, "Come on! How- Glub- did I screw- Glub- this-Glub!"

"Naruto,," Shikamaru said as Naruto began to swim around his unexpected environment, "does your sister know how to swim?"

"Well…" Naruto thought for a moment, "I don't remember ever seeing her swim in my entire life."

"I can swim-Glub- but my leg is tied up by-Glub- a random piece of rope!" Kasumi shouted as she went under the water to untie the pollution from her leg.

"Now I'm wet!" Ino complained as Sakura grunted and splashed Ino, "hey! Stop doing that bill board brow!"

"Ino pig!" Sakura shouted as she splashed more and more water at her rival. Akamaru had the sudden urge to paddle all over the river, splashing Shikamaru in the face.

"This celebration is starting to become a drag," Shikamaru said as he made it to shore. Kasumi then had an idea.

"Why don't we have a party right here?" she suggested as Shikimaru stared at her, "we can go back to the village to change, and I'll retrieve the food."

"We're already wet," Shikamaru pointed out as everyone made it to shore, "let's drop the part where we walk back to the village, and skip on over to where you get the food and some drinks."

"Okay…" Kasumi responded as she stepped out of the water, "I'll be back in about 20 minutes." At that, Kasumi ran at high-speed towards the village.

Shikamaru had a strong urge to announce the idea, "Kasumi is going to get the food. Everyone just have fun in the river!"

"All right!" Kiba shouted as he grabbed Naruto and dunked him in the water.

"Hey!" Naruto said as he wrestled the beast tamer. Soon, the beast joined the battle, and eventually, everything turned into a splash and dunk battle to the point it became sparring.

"That will be $200.55," the ramen shop owner said as Kasumi shrugged.

"Well, there goes my money to buy some clothes to relax around town," Kasumi thought as she paid the bill. Grabbing the bags, Kasumi began to head back to the river, not chancing it on her jutsu again, but planned to use her Phantom Charge to get back more quickly.

"Kasumi?" a voice said from behind her. Kasumi turned to see that it came from Kakashi who had a list.

"Anything wrong Kakashi?" Kasumi asked as Kakashi stared at his paper.

"I need to inform you that there are no other teams to put you on."

Kasumi just stared at Kakashi for a moment, "What! I became a ninja for nothing!"

"Well, actually, if you didn't become one, we would have to arrest you for learning jutsu without proper training," Kakashi reminded her as he looked in the list, "but it doesn't mean we are not placing you on a team."

"But isn't it 3 per team?" Kasumi asked as Kakashi nodded.

"Yes, but we can add you on a team for now as an extra member."

"Really?" Kasumi asked as Kakashi remembered to mention something to her.

"As well, we will be placing you under my team."

"Oh joy," Kasumi muttered as she began to remember the stories of Kakashi's many failed student-

"Wait," Kasumi began to ask something as Kakashi was ready to answer, "Do we have to take another test?"

"You mean the Genin exams?" Kakashi responded as Kasumi stared.

"Didn't we pass already?" Kasumi asked as Kakashi shook his head.

"That exam was to weed out the hopeless cases," Kakashi informed Kasumi as she began to dread Kakashi, "we need to see if you are capable on becoming genin and know the most basic thing all genin need to know, unless they want to be sent back to the academy."

Not wanting to worry herself more, Kasumi said her good-byes to Kakashi, and performed her Phantom Charge back to the group of not-yet Genin.

Trying to forget what she heard, Kasumi tried to relax herself in the little party she made. The day soon ended, and everyone said their good-byes to each other. Kasumi tried to warp home with Naruto, but ended up in someone else's house. After apologizing, the two headed home on foot, which was only a block away.

"What is going on with your new jutsu?" Naruto asked as Kasumi shrugged.

"I don't know," Kasumi responded as she arrived to the entrance of the building, and unlocked the door, "I guess I still need to practice it."

"You'll eventually be able to pull it off right," Naruto assured his sister as she smiled in response, "I wonder who the teams will be tomorrow."

"I don't know," Kasumi said lying to his little brother, "I guess we'll find out tomorrow."

Arriving at their room, Kasumi unlocked the door with a key, and entered the miniature room. She collapsed onto the couch in the living room, and Naruto sat on one of the chairs.

"I think we should be heading to bed now sis," Naruto said as he suddenly noticed his sister already snoring, "Well, you probably already knew what I was going to say." Naruto got up from his chair, and hugged his sister good-night. Afterwards, he wandered towards his room to go to bed himself.

The next morning came, and Kasumi still was sleeping peacefully. Even though it was a dream, Kasumi believed she was awake in the place she was at. In her mind, she noticed that the entire area was gray and somewhat depressing.

'I'm probably going to be bored here,' Kasumi thought as she spun around looking for something or someone. Thinking this was a dream, Kasumi tried to wake herself up, "Okay, what's going on around here?"

"You're going to leave already without saying anything?"

Kasumi tried to look around for the source of the voice. It sounded familiar to her. She began to hear giggles form random directions of a woman that sounded Kasumi's age nearly. Actually, now that she thinks about it, it nearly sounded as her voice.

"Am I speaking to myself in a strange dream or something?"

"No," the other voice responded as Kasumi looked around even more, "but I have to thank you for taking care of Naruto. I really am thankful that someone came out for him."

"I've been doing it for nine years straight, and now you thank me whoever you are?" Kasumi responded as the sound of the voice deep in thought could be heard.

With a response, the entity responded, "Well, I had trouble sending the small amount of chakra I put into Naruto to you, and I wanted to see if you would stand by him."

"You sent your own chakra into Naruto!" Kasumi shouted as now a distorted image of a person began to materialize.

"I really did put too little chakra into him," the spirit said as Kasumi tried to make sense of the image in front of her, "oh well, at least I have you to speak to safely."

"Mind telling me your name lady?" Kasumi asked as the spirit made an effort to materialize even more, but failed.

"I rather not tell you now," the distorted ghost said as Kasumi began to show frustration in her face, "but I will tell you that if Naruto is ever in danger, I will guide you to him."

Kasumi remembered the incident with Mizuki, "Wait, you were the one that gave me that image of Naruto and what was going to happen to him?"

"I sort of live in him," the ghost responded as it flew towards Kasumi, "and I eventually put some of myself in you as well."

'That's sort of disturbing,' Kasumi thought as she shook the thought out of her head, "well, having a guiding spirit to help me out isn't so bad."

"What is bad though," the distorted spirit said as it spun around Kasumi, "is that you're about to be late for your team assigning. But remembering how Kakashi was under my husband, you could probably spare an hour or two."

"We're late!" Kasumi exclaimed as she suddenly snapped out of her trans. As she looked around, she stared at the clock on the wall, "It's 10:00!"

"Ten!" a voice shouted from the next room as Naruto ran out of his room, already dressed, "no time to waste, we need to get there. They already probably called our names!"

"Right," Kasumi said as she quickly went into her room and changed into something else. In about 25 seconds, Kasumi popped out of her room wearing a white shirt and blue shorts.

"That doesn't look very stealthy," Naruto pointed out as Kasumi glared at him.

"Your one to talk Mr. Orange Jumpsuit, but let's go already!"

Rushing over to the Ninja Academy, and heading to their former class room, Kasumi and Naruto were shocked to find out everyone except Sakura and Sasuke were left in the room.

"They called everyone already?" Naruto said as Kasumi tried to remember what the ghost said about Kakashi, "they probably called my name, and replaced me with someone else for the spot."

"I don't think so," Kasumi said as Sakura looked up from her desk, "do you know which senseis came already?"

"Asuma took Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji," Sakura said as she tried to remember who came, "Kurenai took Hinata, Kiba, and Shino, and we are still waiting for ours."

"Mind telling me why we have four in a group," Sasuke asked as everyone stared at him, "and why 2 of my 3 allies are annoying?"

"You're calling me and my sister annoying!" Naruto shouted as Sasuke shook his head.

"I meant you and Sakura."

"Huh?" Sakura gasped as she didn't take the comment too well, "Sasuke thinks I'm annoying? Wait!" Sakura began to make a bunch of assumptions in her mind, and came out with a completely ridiculous idea, "He likes her!"

"Errr, Sakura," Kasumi said as she noticed the venomous glare she was getting from her, "are you okay?"

"I'm…fine," Sakura responded as she began to breathe heavily, "I'm…just…peachy."

"Okay," Kasumi said as she took a seat far away from her, and Sakura calmed down.

'It looks like she isn't interested in him,' Sakura cheered in her mind as she noticed how far away Kasumi was from Sasuke, "I still have a chance!"

'I'm teamed up with my little brother, an Uchiha show-off, and a psycho fan-girl,' Kasumi thought as she turned to glance at everyone that was left, 'this might be interesting.'

"Where's our sensei," Naruto complained as Sakura groaned.

"Don't you have any patience Naruto," Sakura complained as Naruto stared at the clock.

Naruto became bored after 10 minutes of waiting, "Hey Sakura," Naruto turned to said girl as she stared irritatingly at Naruto, "want to do something later after this?"

"With you," Sakura responded as Naruto guessed what was coming next, "I already have plans."

"And I already declined," Sasuke spoke as Sakura flinched. Kasumi, who was bored herself, wanted to poke some fun.

"Don't worry about Sakura little brother," Kasumi said as Naruto turned to his sister, "she isn't that pretty or interesting to go with."

"WWWHHHHAAAATT!" inner Sakura shouted from inside Sakura as she flinched at the comment, "that is it, I'm going to destroy her when I get the chance!"

Sasuke just took a glance at Sakura, and then turned to Kasumi, "You actually kept her quiet with that. I'll remember to say that to her." Sakura, now shaking from everything being said, planned to send Kasumi to the hospital if they ever sparred.

"You really got her good sis," Naruto said as Kasumi smiled, and ducked an eraser thrown by Sakura.

"Touchy," Kasumi said as Sakura was breathing heavily, "I suggest you stop caring what people say, and stop going after guys who don't like you."

"Says the 23-year old who never went out with anyone," Sakura shouted as Sasuke groaned at the noise. Kasumi flinched at the comment remembering a former memory of hers but then began to blush, "I thought so- Huh?""

"Actually, you brought back some good memories I would like to relive," Kasumi said as Sakura smacked her head in defeat.

"Wait…she already had someone who liked her!" Sakura and inner Sakura both thought as they silenced in defeat.

After 20 minutes of silence, and Naruto playing with a paper clip he found on his desk, the door finally opened, and Kakashi finally entered to pick up his team.

"I'm not even going to check the list to see who I needed to see," Kakashi said to his four students, "My name is Kakashi Hatake, and I will be your sensei."

"Why are you so late?" Naruto and Sakura asked.

"I had to go help an old lady with her groceries," Kakashi answered as he stared at his new group, "I want everyone to meet up at Training Ground 15 for your Genin Exams tomorrow."

"Exam?" the three uninformed ninja all asked in confusion, "didn't we already graduate?"

"The graduation exams were just to sort out all the capable ninja, and all the hopeless cases," Kakashi said as everyone except Kasumi stared at Kakashi.

"Did I look like that when I stared at him," Kasumi thought as she noticed the faces on the other three. Sasuke composed himself fairly quickly. Sakura and Naruto both eventually returned their eyes to normal.

"Arrive at exactly 7 o'clock in the morning tomorrow," Kakashi ordered as everyone made note to set their clock for 6 o'clock, "don't disappoint me."

"Don't worry sensei!" Naruto shouted as Sakura and Sasuke nodded. Kasumi just wanted to get out of here before he adds anything else. Kakashi left the room, and gave the order to leave for today. Quickly, everyone left the room. Sasuke went to train more at the fields, and Sakura, obsessed with Sasuke, followed him. Naruto and Kasumi both wandered off to nearby forest some weapon throwing and sparring.

The next day quickly dawned on everyone. Kasumi's new guiding spirit woke her up to prepare Naruto and herself for Kakashi's exam. Kasumi decided to pad herself due to the fact she felt that she was going to be beaten senseless today. She had on the same clothes from yesterday, as her guiding spirit said last night, "You're very forgetful sometimes. You forgot to wash your clothes."

"I'll do it later today!" Kasumi groaned as Naruto stared at his sister.

"Who are you talking to sis?"

Kasumi realized that she wasn't speaking to the spirit anymore, but to Nothingness, "Don't worry about it Naruto, I was deep in thought."

"All right," Naruto responded as the two quickly rushed out the door, and quickly sprinted for Training Ground 15.

Sakura and Sasuke were also there, and not surprisingly, Kakashi wasn't present. Kasumi groaned at this.

"And I could have gotten an extra half-hour of sleep."

"Don't worry sis," Naruto assured as Kasumi looked around, "he'll come on time."

An hour passed, and everyone was sitting on the ground. Sakura was playing with her hair as she stared at Sasuke, Sasuke was ignoring everyone, Naruto was playing with a rock he found, and Kasumi fell asleep.

"Your sister is worse than Shikamaru," Sakura pointed out as she finally noticed the napping woman.

"To tell you the truth," Naruto said as Kasumi rolled on her side, "I've noticed she has woken up in the middle of the night with her eyes closed and speaking to someone that I can't see. I try to wake her up, but she ignores me."

"That's strange of her," Sakura responded as inner Sakura thought Kasumi was a nut job.

In the strange place Kasumi was the past two nights. She saw the spirit that greeted her there, even more distorted than ever.

"You look lively," Kasumi said as she flew around the area.

"That's ironic since I'm sort of dead," the other said as she spun after Kasumi, "Was there something you wanted to ask?"

"Actually yes," Kasumi said as she stopped her flight around the area, "do you know what the genin exam has in store for us?"

"Kakashi is late again," the other spirit asked as Kasumi nodded, "Rin was right about him. Oh well, if it is anything like my husband's, his sensei, and his sensei sensei's test, it involves taking two bells."

"For 4 people?" Kasumi asked as the spirit made a motion that was supposed to represent a nod, "so two of us are going to fail or something?"

"That is what it's supposed to make people think," the ghost said as Kasumi scratched her head, "what is the purpose of having teams? To go against each other, or to work together?"

"To work together," Kasumi answered as the spirit did another nod, "so we have to work together to get the bells."

"Actually, there is a high chance that no one will get the bells, and Kakashi will pick two people to eat, and single out the worst person on the team to be tied up and starve. In your case, it might be three people eating, and one person starving with a warning not to give any food to the poor victim."

"I wouldn't let anyone go hungry," Kasumi declared as the ghost smiled to herself and began to giggle, "What?"

"I think you have discovered the meaning of the test. Now wake up already, Kakashi has arrived."

"I'm up!" Kasumi shouted as Kakashi looked down at her, "hello?"

"Now that everyone is here," Kakashi said as Kasumi stood up, "Let's introduce ourselves. Just say your name, what your favorite food is, and what hobbies you have. I'll start. My name is Kakashi Hatake. I don't really have a favorite food, and I do-"

"Come on Kakashi," Kasumi interrupted as everyone stared at her, "don't say you have no hobbies. You like to read that Makeout Paradise book of yours."

Everyone's eyes went to Kakashi who just stared back in wonderment. "How did yo-"

"Remember that book you said you lost," Kasumi said as she brushed away some hair, "I took it. I wouldn't have imagined that you read porn."

"Perv!" Sakura shouted as Kakashi regretted having Kasumi on his team.

"Why don't you go next," Kakashi ordered as he pointed at Kasumi.

"Well, my name is Kasumi Uzumaki, and I enjoy eating anything you give me as long as it isn't peanuts."

"Why?" Sakura asked as an evil plan was formed by her inner self if the next words were spoken.

"I'm allergic to peanuts," Kasumi answered as she noticed an evil smile coming from Sakura, "…for hobbies…Errrr…I used to collect feathers with a former friend of mine."

"Good," Kakashi said as he turned to Naruto, "why don't you introduce yourself."

"Right," Naruto shouted as he gave his introductions, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I love ramen, and my dream is to become hokage one day. I try to train everyday with my sister when she isn't tired."

"I don't know where he gets the energy," Kasumi said as she kept the information about the Kyuubi to herself.

"And your introduction," Kakashi said as he pointed to Sakura.

"My name is Sakura Haruno, and my favorite food are dumplings. My hobbies include."

"I'll stop you there before you make a fool out of yourself," Kakashi said trying to avoid anything about stalking Sasuke, "and it's your turn Sasuke."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha."

"…And…" Kasumi continued as Sasuke remained quiet, "…this isn't going anywhere Kakashi. Can we skip onto the exam you have planned."

"Of course," Kakashi said as he pulled out two bells on a few strings, "try to take these bells away. The people who take the bells, or perform the best in the attempt will be able to eat. Between the other two, the person who performed better will eat as well. The one who has shown the poorest performance will be tied up to a tree and will not eat lunch."

"Got it!" all four of the ninja responded as Kasumi noticed a gleam in Kakashi's eye that told her there was something more to this. And her new friend's information already told her what the exam was about.

"And remember," Kakashi added as everyone's attention went back to their sensei, "if you are not ready to kill me, you will not get the bells."

"Lethal force can be used," Sakura asked as Kakashi nodded, "I hope no accidents occur during the exams."

"I don't recommend injuring your teammates if you want to pass," Kakashi informed as Sakura dropped the idea, "now begin!"

"Hey!" Kasumi shouted as Kakashi puffed away, "where did he go?"

Sasuke just ran off to the north, leaving everyone behind.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted as he was about to run after his rival, "you're not going to beat me to a bell!"

"Wait Naruto," Kasumi said as she tugged on his collar, "we need to stay together and come up with a plan."

Sakura became interested in what Kasumi and Naruto were doing, "Why? Only two of us will get bells, and the third person will survive the final cut between the last two."

"Sort of," Kasumi started as Sakura stared confused at Kasumi, "but aren't teams supposed to work together? We put our goals aside for the betterment of the team."

"That old saying from the Ninja Academy," Naruto thought as he realized what Kakashi was planning to do, "he's trying to make us go against each other!"

"The real test is if we look through that deception and work together for the bells," Sakura finished as Kasumi nodded, "someone has to go tell Sasuke."

"Naruto will," Kasumi said as Naruto nodded, "try to figure out a way to distract Kakashi as Sakura and Iswipe the bells from him."

"Right," Naruto said as he dashed to the direction Sasuke vanished off to. Kasumi turned to Sakura who was ready at the command.

'And I thought she was going to be like her brother,' Sakura thought as an idea sprung, "how good is your aim?"

"Well, I can sort of travel at high-speeds for a close range attack," Kasumi said as she pulled out her old trusty hunting knife.

"You're going to use that?" Sakura said as Kasumi nodded and activated her Phantom Charge. Kasumi now had a yellow glow to her, and she began to flurry the knife at unbelievable speeds, "H-H-H-How can you do that!"

"I don't know," Kasumi responded as she quickly went from one spot to another in a millisecond, "what was your idea?"

"Well," Sakura began as she recovered herself from the sudden shock, "as the two boys are distracting Kakashi, I throw a decoy Kunai at him. He'll notice my weapon, and attempt to dodge it. Your job is to intercept him as he dodges, and sever the strings of the bells."

"I like that plan," Kasumi said as she began to hear conflict nearby, "I think the boys have already started on distracting Kakashi."

"Come on!" Sakura shouted as they headed towards the area.

"AAAAAHH-UGH!" the hordes of Naruto's shouted as each one went down with a single hit from Kakashi. Sasuke, who was told of what the test really was about, attempted to swipe the bells, but their sensei dodged them.

"I see that you two are working together," Kakashi commented as a clone was able to grasp a bell before being elbowed to oblivion, "but is it enough to get these bells."

"We'll see," Sasuke shouted as he attempted to use a shuriken at the bells.

"Nice try," Kakashi said as he avoided the weapon and turn to see Sakura, who was in the motion of tossing a kunai.

"Try to dodge the next attack!" Sakura shouted as her blade soared through the air at Kakashi.

"Heh," Kakashi said as he easily sidestepped the attack. But what he realized was that the Kunai wasn't perfectly aimed at all. But before he could come up with a reason for this, Kasumi quickly flew next to him, and swung her blade towards the strings. Kakashi attempted to puff out of the way, but by the time he vanished, Kasumi had the two bells in her hand.

"High chance of failing my foot," Kasumi smiled as she tossed the bells to her little brother and Sasuke, "thanks for the distraction boys."

"Thanks for reminding us of that meaning," Sasuke said as he turned to Sakura, "and you did a good job at fooling Kakashi."

"This test was easier than I expected," Sakura said as everyone nodded, "if we all went after the bell, we would be fighting each other for our own goals."

Naruto continued, "But if we put those goals aside for our team mates, we can accomplish anything."

"And with those lines alone would have made you pass this exam," Kakashi said as he puffed back into the area, "I'm happy to say that you're the first team in a long while that has figured out the true meaning of this test."

"All right!" Kasumi and Naruto cheered as Sakura, and even Sasuke joined in the cheer.

"We will begin missions and training tomorrow," Kakashi informed as everyone quieted down, "but why don't I buy lunch for everyone as a reward for finishing this test so quickly."

"YEEEAAAHH!" Naruto cheered at the mention of free food, "Let's go!"

"Fine," Sasuke said as he began to walk towards the village. Sakura joined him, and both Naruto and Kakashi followed. Kasumi, on the other hand, looked up into the sky.

'Thanks for helping us out,' Kasumi thought as she noticed everyone has left her, 'I probably should follow them.'

I could probably guess that most people know who that ghost is, especially with the mention of having part of her chakra in Naruto. Only three beings have their chakra in Naruto, one being the Kyuubi, and the other two being…well, you should know.

I'm happy to write this for everyone, and even more happy that Dragon-Wolf Tamer is helping out.

Remember to read and review. That, or favorite the story if you want.

"You did things different, that's good well anyway, Abridger reference, yay, but what happened about Obito's quote that Kakashi says, oh well, they got it anyway besides you don't read this,"-Dragon-Wolf Tamer


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Thanks to my quick searching and formulating skills, I was able to finish one of my papers in around 3 hours. Thank you page limits. Anyway, this chapter might be a bit long for one that might be called a "filler," and I probably won't be able to write one for a while unless the English assignment is one I could do quickly, or one where I will be able to finish each part in a day or so.

But back to the fic, someone (you should know by now) pointed out I did things out of sequence. I actually don't remember the earlier episodes, and being visually impaired, I don't know what happens on screen. So bare with me as I try to tell everything in my way. I also forgot to put in a quote that should have been in last chapter. I'll make Kakashi say it in this chapter after their first few mission. Enjoy!

Chapter 7: Are we Ninjas or Laborers!

"Are we ready for this," Kasumi whispered to Naruto as he nodded, "remind me what the plan was. I sort of forgot."

"Sakura and Sasuke will cover the other side of the target to prevent it from fleeing away," Naruto responded back as their "target" was looking around in confusion, "I will summon a group of Shadow Clones to cover the path behind it so it has no chance of retreat. While the objective is dodging and looking for a way out, you will be backup if we are not able to subdue it."

"Got it," Kasumi whispered as she hid in the bushes. Naruto prepared his Shadow clones for this mission as Sasuke gave the signal.

"Now Naruto!" Sasuke said as he lunged at the target, but realized the objective evaded him.

"Oh no you don't!" Naruto shouted as he activated his jutsu and blocked the target from retreating, "Get that cat!"

"MMMEEEEOOOOWWW!" the poor beast yelped as it leaped away from the hands of the Naruto horde, causing some to hit each other and dispel. It made an effort to turn right and evade through the path in front. Until Sakura was able to grab it by its feet.

"I got it!" Sakura shouted as she held up the cat in victory…until…

"MEEEOOOWW!" the cat yelled as its back paw swiped across Sakura's face, leaving a good size scratch across it and causing Sakura to release the cat.

"Ow!" Sakura whined as she covered her face, ignoring the tongue the cat shot her, "where is it?"

"It's attempting to escape through the bushes," Sasuke warned as Kasumi prepared herself. As the cat dashed in front of her, Kasumi placed her arms around the cat and as it thrashed in her arms, began to pet its head. The feline began to purr, and everyone was relieved.

"All it needed was to be petted," Kasumi smiled as everyone else glared at the cat, "stop doing that, you scared the cat with your plans of capture."

"It scratched me in the face!" Sakura protested as she used her arm to cover it.

"Yeah!" the Naruto group responded as they stared at the cat, "something is not right with that thing."

"You do realize this is just a small, playful creature," Kasumi pointed out as Sasuke glanced at his team mates.

"Let's just return this cat," Sasuke said as he headed towards the hokage tower to report on their mission.

"I'm still wondering why they call this a mission," Naruto said as he dispelled his clones and followed Sasuke, "we were trained for defense and combat, not retrieving flea-ridden fur-balls."

"Don't say that Naruto," Kasumi announced with a playful tone as she kept the cat calm, "you're going to hurt its feelings."

"Come on cat," Sakura's inner self thought as she followed everyone else, "scratch her like you did me."

"Why am I getting a strange feeling that someone is wishing me harm?" Kasumi spoke as she looked around. After she began walking, she put one of her arms over her face and sneezed, "Never mind."

After delivering the cat to its owner, Naruto began to complain to Kakashi about the mission.

"Come on Kakashi," Naruto complained as he looked around for something to look forward to, "that wasn't a mission, it seemed more like chores."

"People are paying the village to get these missions done," Kakashi began as Kasumi, Sakura, and Sasuke found the two, "what you just did was a D-rank mission."

"Is that what you call grunt work," Sakura said as Kakashi sighed.

"It's just the ranking system for the difficulty or danger of these missions. We tend to give Genin these mission as it is a way to train basic skills. All ninjas are able to do D-ranks. If your assigned one by the Hokage, you must complete it. All ninjas are allowed to receive C-rank missions as well. These missions actually have a level of danger in them, but with non-skilled opponents like thugs and common criminals. They are easy enough to fend off and a good way to train Genin fighting skills. The missions I can't trust you with yet go beyond the two. B and A-rank missions involve much more dangerous opponents who are extremely skilled in battle. Rogue shinobi are usually involved in these missions. As well, protection missions fall in this category if it is someone of importance. Unlike peasants, more dangerous assassins might be sent to kill or capture them. We need our best shinobi for those missions."

"So is this the basic ranking system for you guys?" Kasumi asked as Kakashi shook his head.

"We also have S-rank missions. Those missions either involve the capture or death of extremely dangerous missing-nins that may pose a danger to the safety of the village. We also classify village defense as an S-rank mission. These missions are more difficult and important than the others, but all ninja classes may partake in the case of village defense. As well, I just gave you a few mission types, we have many others that fall into one of the ranks. As well, we sometimes may end up sending a wrong team to a mission. One that might be C-rank may turn into a B-rank mission if more dangerous circumstances appear."

"Making the more exciting rank exciting," Naruto commented as Kakashi looked at Naruto.

"I need to warn you, the danger level between C and B missions are completely different," Kakashi said as Naruto listened up, "we had many teams come back in critical condition or dead from the sudden change in danger. You may want to rethink and rephrase what you just said."

"If that's the case," Kasumi said as she walked towards her little brother, "I'll stick with D-rank missions for now."

"Huh?" Naruto stared in disbelief, "Are you sure you're my sister?"

"I just want you safe until you're ready," Kasumi responded as Naruto's stubbornness kicked in.

"But I am ready," Naruto said as he walked up to Kakashi, "what's our next mission."

"Well…" Kakashi began as he pulled up the briefing.

"Gardening is considered a mission!" Naruto shouted in defeat as he tried to water the plants as quickly as he could.

"You're going a bit too fast there Naruto," Sakura pointed out as she calmly poured water on the roots, "and you're supposed to water the roots, not the plant itself."

"At least this is slightly better than what Kasumi and Sasuke are doing," Naruto announced as Sakura gripped her watering pot tightly.

"Grrrr," Sakura growled as she dropped her "calm and slow" movement to rapid and careless.

"Didn't we just save this cat earlier?" Sasuke muttered as he climbed up the tree.

"I still say this is a bad idea," Kasumi said as Sasuke reached the top of the tree where the same cat from earlier was perched on one of the branches, "I'm just saying."

Ignoring Kasumi, Sasuke slowly crept up to the cat. It wasn't aware of the visitor at first. This gave Sasuke the chance to grab it before it tries anything.

"Got you!" Sasuke announced as the cat noticed Sasuke at the last second and leaped backwards, on Sasuke's face, "AAAAAH!"

"I told you," Kasumi teased as she watched her teammate teeter on the branch as his face is being mauled, "don't drop the cat."

"What about me!" Sasuke shouted as this scared the cat even more and pawed Sasuke in between the eyes, causing him to fall off the branch, "HHHHEEEEELLLLPPPP!"

Seeing the two falling, Kasumi went under the pair and prepared to catch, "don't worry, I got you."

Well, Kasumi caught one of them as the other plummeted to the ground in a heap. Kasumi then began to stroke the one she caught.

"Don't worry, the bad man isn't going to bother you," Kasumi assured as the cat purred in her arms.

Sasuke got up from his small crater and glared at Kasumi, "What?"

"Cats land on their feet if you didn't know," Sasuke said as he whipped dirt from his clothes, "humans don't."

"I knew you would be all right," Kasumi said as she kept the cat calm, "and the objective would have ran off if I caught you. Though, I think you should get your face patched up."

Sasuke put a hand over his face to feel all the wounds on his face, "It will eventually heal."

"Probably not fast enough for Sakura's taste," Kasumi replied as she headed back to the hokage tower with the cat again, "go get the others. I doubt watering plants was that time consuming."

"Fine," Sasuke muttered as he ran where his other team mates were.

"This is ridiculous," Naruto said as he entered the office of the hokage, "give us a real mission."

"I'm tired of that cat," Sasuke muttered as he applied a special patch given to him to seal the wounds, "I agree with Naruto here."

"These D-rank missions sound like jobs that the people are too lazy to do on their own," Sakura said as the hokage stood from his chair.

"I see you are all eager to go out of the village for work," the hokage said as Kasumi was going to say something against it before getting elbowed in the stomach by her little brother, "well, I'm glad you asked. It turns out that a C-rank mission that involves traveling to the Land of Waves was just received."

"Really?" Naruto said as the hokage nodded, "finally, some action!"

"It beats doing these chore missions," Sakura said as Sasuke was done applying the patch all over his face.

"It beats rescuing the cat again," Sasuke muttered as the hokage decided against telling them the same cat fell down a well, "any details on the mission."

"You will be escorting a bridge builder to that area in order to construct a bridge," the hokage began as everyone listen intently, "there are some people that wish for the bridge to never be built. Our client believes that many of his henchmen may try to attack him along the way to the Land of Waves."

"Sign us up," Naruto exclaimed as Kasumi pondered on what Kakashi mentioned earlier on teams sometimes never returning, "we're ready for it."

"Well," the hokage spoke after Naruto calmed down, "your sensei felt that you deserved a mission of your level."

"So where is the builder?" Sakura asked as the hokage realized something.

"He left earlier," the hokage said as he checked some papers, "he did not have enough money to pay for the mission and was going to return tomorrow with the payment. This mission isn't official yet. Return tomorrow to see if the payment was made and prepare to leave afterwards."

"Yes sir," all four of the Genin said as they started to leave the office.

"I actually have one more assignment for your team to do," the hokage stopped them as Kasumi turned around.

"If it involves the cat again, leave the rest of my team out of it," Kasumi informed as the hokage handed her the papers. Relieved that they will not be seeing the cat again, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura decided to head home.

"Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke," Kakashi called as the three exited the building, "I guess you were told already."

"Yeah," the three responded as their Sensei walked up to them.

"After some consideration, I decided you are all able to go on a C-rank mission," Kakashi said as he noticed the scratch mark on Sakura and the fading marks on Sasuke, "though, if you let a cat hit you so easily, I'm starting to reconsider."

"That cat isn't normal," Sasuke said as Kakashi stared at the group.

"Truth be told," Kakashi said as he remembered some painful memories, "a similar cat gave the team I was on the same grief in catching it. Though, Ob- well, never mind."

"Thanks though for giving us a better mission," Naruto said as Kakashi remembered what he was supposed to say.

"I need to tell you three something I forgot to say yesterday," Kakashi said as his team tried to pay attention, "I think Kasumi's little comment made me forget. It was about the meaning of the test."

"You mean that we are supposed to put our own goals aside for the betterment of the team," Sasuke said as Kakashi nodded, "we figured that out already. It helped in getting the bells from you."

"It is good you remember that," Kakashi said, "but remember this. those in the ninja world who don't follow the rules and regulations are trash, however, those in the ninja world who don't care about their teammates are worse than trash."

"That's a familiar quote," Sakura thought as she remembered her school days.

"No way I'll ever do that to my own team," Naruto thought as he stared at his other two teammates, and remembered Kasumi.

"Is there anything else you need us to hear sensei?" Sasuke asked as Kakashi shook his head, "I should be heading back home before I get dragged into doing another D-ranked mission."

"I think my parents need me to work around the flower shop," Sakura said as she headed off in the opposite direction from Sasuke. Naruto was left there with his sensei before Kakashi decided that he had enough time to read his book before it was night and puffed away. Naruto, finding no other living beings near him and an empty stomach growling, decided to head for the Ramen shop to eat.

Not long after, night quickly fell. Kasumi entered her apartment building and unlocked the door to her section of the building. As soon as she entered, her little brother greeted her.

"Hey sis," Naruto said giving Kasumi a hug, "how was your mission?"

"It went well," Kasumi said as she plopped onto the couch, "it turned out that it was running from its owner do to mishandling of the poor thing. Though, even after I showed the lady how to hold the cat, she probably will forget tomorrow and someone else will be chasing after it."

"That explains a lot," Naruto said as he remembered that he brought some food over from the shop. He went to the kitchen and pulled out the ramen slowly heated by the stove which was set on low. Naruto brought over the food and Kasumi smiled.

"Thanks for the food," Kasumi said as she remembered that she ended up skipping lunch earlier today due to missions. Kasumi then turned to the kitchen and turned to her little brother, "do we ever cook something at home?"

"I just like to eat," Naruto said as he sat on the chair, "do you have any skills in the kitchen."

"Actually…" Kasumi thought as she realized she hasn't made a single dish in her life. It was either bought, or Raven used to bring some over, "I never learned how to. Makes me think why we even have a stove or oven other than to heat things up."

"We have lived like this for over 9 years," Naruto said as he stood up from the chair, "I don't see the need to learn how to cook."

"I don't know," Kasumi said as a nagging feeling was bothering her at the back of her head, "I guess I can't rely on buying everything to eat."

Naruto turned his head and started to look around, "Hmmmm, why do I have the feeling someone is upset and angry."

Kasumi then had a strange feeling inside her as well. If it was who she think it was, Kasumi wasn't going to get a good night's sleep, "Errr, I guess it's the haunting spirits of other people who are upset on our laziness to learn how to cook." Kasumi then looked around as the words, "Funny, you hit nail on the head" was whispered.

"Don't be crazy sis," Naruto responded as Kasumi resumed in her consumption of the ramen, "anyway, I don't care about that. What I do care about is tomorrow's mission."

"That is if the client pays up," Kasumi said as she devoured the food quickly, "Huh?"

Naruto stared at his sister as she started to look around the room. Kasumi started to eat slowly afterwards, "What just happened to you?"

"I was eating too fast," Kasumi said as she began to hear things. What she heard was, "Show better table manners please."

"Well, I really don't care how you eat sis," Naruto said as Kasumi flinched and put a hand on her ear, "Are you okay?"

"OW!" Kasumi moaned as she felt that her ear was just tugged by an unseen force, "Don't worry, I think the cat got me earlier today on my ear."

Naruto looked at the said ear and found nothing wrong with it, "What are you talking about sis?"

"Never mind," Kasumi said as she resumed her slow paced eating of her ramen, "but back to what we were talking about, when the client pays up, expect a little trouble to come your way."

"Random crooks and thugs," Naruto said as Kasumi looked up and then back to Naruto, "it is not as exciting as fighting regular shinobi, but at least it is better than random jobs around the village."

"Just don't get yourself killed," Kasumi said as Naruto stared back at his sister in disbelief.

"I thought you had more faith in me than that," Naruto stated as Kasumi shook some of her ideas out of her head.

"You're right," Kasumi responded and finished the rest of her ramen, "I think you will do fine on the mission."

"You sure know we will," Naruto said as he pumped his fist in the air, "but I'm getting tired. I'll hit the hay for tonight."

"I better go to sleep as well," Kasumi said as she began to stand and head to her room without putting away her bowl or showering after a long day. Suddenly, another, longer pain was inflicted on Kasumi as she felt her hair being tugged towards the direction of the bowl, "Okay, Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!"

"…Good night sis," Naruto said as he headed to his room. Kasumi was quickly back stepping to the abandoned bowl, and another whisper was heard.

"Pick up after yourself please."

Doing so, Kasumi grabbed the bowl and carried it off to the kitchen. She placed it in the sink and attempted to go to her room to sleep. Key word would be "attempt."

"Not again," Kasumi groaned as her hair was painfully pulled for the second time.

"Are you really going to sleep dirty like that," a voice in Kasumi's mind said as she recognized the voice.

"Ugh, when did you become my mother," Kasumi said as another painful tug was felt, "Ow!"

"I wouldn't think a grown woman like you would act like this," the voice said as Kasumi, tired of having her hair spiritually tugged, ran towards the bathroom, undressed, and leaped into the shower. Turning on the shower, Kasumi then groaned as another tug was felt.

"I just searched through your mind that you haven't bathed for 3 days!"

"Stop going through my mind whoever you were- OW!" Kasumi groaned as yet again, she had her hair tugged.

"I'm older than you so treat me with more respect than that."

"Are we sure the dead have age," Kasumi said as she now felt a painful smack across her face, turning her head to get sprayed in the eyes by the jets of water, "what the…"

"I just wanted to test that out," the lingering spirit in Kasumi said as Kasumi scrambled for the soap.

After a painful lesson on how to shower better, Kasumi walked out of the bathroom with a white towel around her form. She quietly stepped into the living room, and crept into her room.

"That was the most painful shower I had to endure," Kasumi thought as she was quickly smacked across the face, "I'm getting the feeling you just like to hit me."

"I admit," the spirit's voice said in Kasumi's mind as she started to change into her sleeping robe, "it started to get fun after the 6th time."

"Haha," Kasumi sarcastically, the spirit laughed as Kasumi groaned. Tired, and annoyed with the pain in her face and head, Kasumi fell onto her bed, and quickly drifted to sleep…

"Why did I want to sleep again," Kasumi thought as she returned to the strange place with the distorted spirit, now staring at her with extremely pale eyes, "I'm probably not going to have a good-night's sleep tonight."

"So, you don't know how to cook?" the spirit asked as Kasumi shook her head, "This isn't good. And I heard you wanted to raise a family."

"Hey, stop reading my personal thoughts," Kasumi complained as the spirit giggled.

"Well, I wanted to see what you were doing for the years you vanished," the spirit responded as it now floated on its side, "I sort of question your life style, but your still manageable."

"Define manageable?" Kasumi said as the ghost floated around Kasumi.

"By any luck, I could turn you into a functioning woman to take care of Naruto and any others you tend to find," Kasumi noticed that the ghost's somewhat visible eye winked at her.

"Hey," Kasumi protested in her invasion of her privacy, "it is not nice for a stranger to know my life."

'If you only could see,' the spirit thought as she remembered what she was trying to remember to say to her daughter, "right, I have to now teach you how to cook."

"I have to learn while asleep," Kasumi groaned as even in unconsciousness, she is still in constant movement and thought, "whatever happened to someone's mind being their own sanctuary."

"Not anymore," the distorted ghost said as she began her basic cooking lessons.

After an extensive lesson, and the ghost's word that she will guide Kasumi on her meals as she cooked, Kasumi was hoping for the next day to occur.

"I hope you remembered everything I said," the spirit said as Kasumi tiredly nodded, "I hope so."

"Well," Kasumi said as she wondered for a moment, "do you have any idea what is with the bridge builders situation?"

"My dear," the spirit began as it spun in place, "I already told you that I live inside Naruto. I sort of put a fraction of the small amount of chakra I put in him to you. Going to other people may take longer, and the man wasn't around."

"Well, it didn't hurt to ask," Kasumi said as the spirit floated up to Kasumi and slapped the red-headed woman, "Never mind that."

"Now that you mentioned Naruto," the spirit began as Kasumi rubbed her face, "you have to teach him better manors."

"Can't you do that," Kasumi asked as she was yet again slapped, "ow."

"You're his living sister," the spirit said as Kasumi floated away from the ghost, "why do I have to do all the work? You should be teaching him a bit better on his manors."

"I noticed though," Kasumi said as she looked at the spirit, "why haven't you spoken to Naruto. He has never mentioned anything about a spirit."

"I sort of have to keep myself hidden from him," the spirit answered as it floated over Kasumi, "I will appear to him as my actual self. I need to stay hidden from him until the right moment."

"That sort of sucks," Kasumi said as the spirit floated next to Kasumi, "you seem like a friend or something to Naruto."

"Right…friend," the spirit muttered as it began to fly away, "I'm going to leave you alone," the spirit said as it began to vanish, "good luck on your mission tomorrow. And if Naruto is in danger, I'll show you where he is. Bye!"

"Bye," Kasumi said as her form began to vanish, and she quickly fell into a dream.

A/N: I guess nothing was accomplished other than the extent of Kushina's communication to her Daughter. I was wrong, I thought this chapter would be short. They are actually getting longer. I think that since I finished one of my papers so quickly, I ended up feeling a bit typy, if that's even a word. Oh well.

Remember to read and review. (or favorite and alert. Just tell me how you think the story is doing).

"It is not a word."-Dragon-Wolf Tamer


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. As well, I do not own my own life for some reason.

A/NN: I know I have to work more on my papers, but I got tired of thinking academically. Why not think of something fun for a change and type it.

I know I get somethings out of order, but it has been a while since I heard the old episodes. As well, I have trouble using Animefreak as it takes 20+ minutes on my computer to load a video, and Youtube is not very helpful either without extensive and specific searching. Oh well, I found the episodes for this chapter, but I probably change it up. This is .

Chapter 8: The Trip to the Land of Waves

The next day, Naruto went to wake up his sister. As he entered her room, expecting her to give a evil glare for waking her up, Naruto found out that she was not in bed.

"Huh?" Naruto said as he looked around the room for any note of some sort. Though, Naruto began to smell something, "Hey, something smells nice. Maybe Kasumi brought food to eat."

Excited at the prospect of food, Naruto rushed to the kitchen to devour whatever was brought. But to his surprise, he saw a very sleepy Kasumi attempting to make eggs and pancakes.

"What the," Naruto said as he noticed milk, eggs, flour and other ingredients laid upon a now clean countertop, "where did you get all this!"

Kasumi turned her head to spot her brother, and returned her gaze back to the frying egg and the bowl of batter in front of her, "I bought it at the store an hour ago."

"And you are cooking?" Naruto asked as his sister sleepily nod, "Did you suddenly just learn how to cook or something overnight?"

Kasumi began to chuckle sarcastically, 'You don't know how true that is Naruto.'

'I hope he enjoys my- I mean your cooking,' the spirit whispered to Kasumi as she frowned.

'I was not expecting to be deprived of sleep while speaking to you,' Kasumi said as she placed a pan on the stove and turned on the flames for it.

"Are you sure I should eat what you are making?" Naruto asked as Kasumi just yawned in response, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah yea…" Kasumi replied as she poured some batter into the pan and began to cook the flapjack, "Just trust me."

'And the recipe I use to make these,' the spirit whispered as Kasumi shook her head.

'Says the lady who told me to put egg shells into the batter,' Kasumi thought and had her hair tugged.

'I messed up there,' the spirit retorted and Kasumi quickly took the eggs off the pan and placed them on a plate.

"So is this edible?" Naruto asked as Kasumi replied with a yawn as she attempted to take the pancakes off the pan. Knowing his sister was too exhausted, Naruto took a tentative bite, "Hey, not bad."

'You see,' the spirit communicated as Kasumi fumbled around through the bags looking for syrup, 'you can cook.'

"Ugh," Kasumi groaned as she gave the blonde kid his breakfast, "I hope you enjoy."

"When did you learn how to cook," Naruto asked as he ate his food."

"I did a little reading…" Kasumi lied as her internal spirit giggled, "and had some help. Kasumi had a fork and jabbed it at the table.

"Well you forgot one thing," Naruto laughed as Kasumi looked down at her empty spot on the table, "you forgot to make food for yourself."

"I'll just have some bread," Kasumi groaned as she stood from her seat and shuffled to get some bread in the cabinet.

'Hurry up,' the spirit commanded as Kasumi located the bread in the empty cabinet, 'you have to go soon.'

'Fine,' Kasumi thought as she munched on her slices of bread.

All of team 7, including Kakashi, was standing in the hokage's office. Kasumi was standing with her eyes closed, waiting for the client to come. Sakura was reading a book she borrowed from the library, while Sasuke was standing there…

Naruto was playing around with his finger in anticipation for the person they have to guard. Kakashi was reading his book in peace.

This continued for about 45 minutes. The hokage grew restless, awaiting the payment and client to arrive. Suddenly the door opened. Everyone suddenly dropped what they were doing (Kasumi jumping at the noise) and stared at the door. An old man, busy chugging down his sake, stepped in with the payment in hand.

"Huh?" Naruto moaned as he looked at the man, "we have to guard an old g man like him."

The man turned to the genin group and groaned himself, "a group of worthless genin?"

"Who are you calling worthless!" Naruto shouted as the man turned to the hokage.

"Did you bring your payment?" the hokage asked as the man handed over a few bills.

"I guess you get what you pay for," the old man said as everyone stared at the man, "all of them look weak, especially the short blonde idiot."

Naruto began to laugh at the poor sap that was mocked…until he started looking around the room.

'Who's the short blonde I-," Naruto thought as a sudden realization hit him and he lunged at the man, only to be restrained by Kakashi and Kasumi, "I'll demolish you! Let me at him!"

"Naruto," Kakashi said as he attempted to keep his grip on Naruto, "we can't demolish the clients, that isn't how it works."

"Calm down," Kasumi ordered as eventually Naruto stopped thrashing around.

The hokage thought it would be time to introduce the bridge builder, "This is Tazuna-"

"You don't have to introduce me to them…" The old man said as he took another swig of his sake, "that's not important…what's important is if they are going to get me from point A to point B."

"I see you have enough to pay for the mission," the hokage said as his payment was received, "Since the team is packed, we are ready to depart from here."

"Ugh…I can't believe I'm stuck with a bunch of genin," Tazuna groaned as Naruto became even more angry, "what's with this?"

"You only had enough to pay for this team," the hokage said as Tazuna yawned, "Whatever…"

"I guess we're on our way now," Kasumi said as she hugged Naruto tightly, so he wouldn't lunge at the man, "Let's go."

"Let me go sis," Naruto yelled as Sakura groaned in humiliation.

"Why does he have to act like this…"

'Why does he act like an idiot,' Sasuke thought as he followed the group out.

"Don't worry sir," Kakashi said as he approached the man, "I'm a Jonin. If anything serious occurs during our escort, I'll handle it."

"At least there's one competent person," the man retorted as Kasumi placed her hands over Naruto's ears.

"What did he say?" Naruto said as Kasumi resumed her grip on him.

"Nothing…"

After a bit more packing, and a bit more bickering from Naruto and Tazuna, they were on their way…

'…Is this conversation ever going to end,' Kasumi thought as she drowned out Kakashi's explanation

'…Want to speak with me?' the familiar voice of her guiding spirit.

'Eh…why not,' Kasumi thought as she looked to see Kakashi yelling something about "You were just questioning the Hokage's abilities!"

'Interesting…' Kasumi's friend said as she told Kasumi what Naruto was thinking.

'Hahahahaha!' Kasumi chuckled , 'It's true though…'

'I used to be alive in the hokage's younger days…' the spirit said as she began to giggle, 'he was caught many times with one of his students peeking into the girl's locker room.'

'Here we go again,' Kasumi thought as the old man made fun of Naruto's dreams of becoming the next hokage.

'Old man…' the other voice thought in Kasumi's mind, 'doesn't know what he's babbling about.'

'This is going to be a long day…' Kasumi thought as she just remembered someone can hear her thoughts…

'I want to ask you something,' the other spirit said as Kasumi nodded to listen, 'How'd you get separated from Naruto exactly?'

'Well,' Kasumi thought as she recalled the entire incident in her mind, 'Probably not a good idea to teach young children any jutsus.'

"Hmmmmm,' the other being thought with a little anger, 'I'm going to do something later today when I reenter Naruto.'

'I don't want to know,' Kasumi thought as her head was suddenly jerked to the side, "What the…

"Watch out!"

"Huh?" Kakashi turn to be quickly struck down by a chain. Two men leaped out of the shadows.

"Now!" One of the men shouted as the chain, who was linked between them wrapped around Kakashi's body and sliced him to pieces…

"…" Kasumi had her mouth wide open after seeing that happen.

"Kakashi sensei!" Sakura shouted as the two men turned to the old man.

"You're next!" both shouted and attempted to ensnare Tazuna.

" Oh no you don't!" Kasumi shouted activating her Phantom Charge and swooping towards the man, touching him to distort his physical form.

As the chain hit him, it flew right through, and the two men fell down in surprise.

"What the…" both said as both received a swift kick to the back by Kasumi.

"…" Naruto was still standing there in place, now fearing what might happen to him as he remembered what just occurred.

"Move Naruto!" Sasuke shouted as the chain swung to him at very high speed.

'Crap!' Kasumi said flying towards Naruto to move him out of the way, but the chain was about to make contact, 'No…'

Clink.

"HUH?" the two men both said as they noticed there chain breaking and missing Naruto completely, "Who broke it!"

"Hello," Kakashi said appearing in view, "did anyone miss me?"

"Kakashi?" Sakura Naruto, and Kasumi asked as they looked towards the spot where the corpse should be to find logs, "Oh!"

"He used Substitution!" one of the two Demon Brothers said as he extended a claw from his gauntlet, "We'll do this the hard way."

"Right," the other one said following his brother.

"Be careful…" Kakashi said as he looked as his teammates quickly, "they're Chunin."

'Wha!' Naruto thought in horror as he stared at the two men, 'Chunin? I can't handle that!'

"Move you idiot!" Sasuke shouted as Naruto, too late to move completely out of the way, was grazed by the claw lunged at him.

"Hm." Sasuke said as he pushed Naruto out of the way of the second claw swipe, "What's wrong with you?"

"Huh?" Naruto said as he noticed the wound on his arm.

"Are you a scaredy cat?" Sasuke mocked as he faced the two and tripped the incoming attacker.

'Are you in second grade?' the spirit in Kasumi thought as she stood in the middle to lunge at anymore attacks.

"Whaaaaaa!" one of the brothers said as Kakashi leaped from behind and placed a foot on the back of his head.

"Brother-ACK!" the other brother said as Kasumi flew behind him at high-speed and planted her materialized foot on the side of his head, knocking him out.

"Sakura, Sasuke," Kakashi ordered as the two listened, "Tie up these two. I need to go check on Naruto. There claws were poisoned."

"Poisoned!" Naruto panicked as he did the last thing anyone should do while poisoned, "I don't want to go this way!"

"Don't move around so much," Kasumi warned her little brother, "It'll spread the poison even faster!"

"We need to take him back to the village," Sakura shouted as Naruto stopped moving.

"That'll mean canceling this mission for now," Kakashi said as bridge builder intervened.

"We can't stop…I need to get over to the Land of Waves now!" Tazuna protested.

"We can't continue with him like this," Kakashi said as Naruto was in thought, "We need to remove the poison from his blood."

"We're continuing this mission," Naruto said as he looked at his wound, "I was useless out there when they attacked."

'Isn't that the truth,' Tazuna thought as he stared at the boy taking out his kunai.

"I even had to let Sasuke save me," Naruto grunted as he plunged his kunai into his wound and caused a stream of blood to pour out of his exacerbated wound, "With this wound…this Oath of pain…I'll never let that happen again!"

Silence struck everyone for a moment as they watched Naruto bleed out the poison from him. Kakashi, noticing the length of time, spoke.

"Naruto…it's cool that you stabbed yourself to remove the poison, but if you keep bleeding like that, you're going to die."

Another short silenced followed. Kasumi blinked a few times before…

"Oh man!" Naruto began panicking as he attempted to stop the bleeding, "I don't want to go like this. Someone help me! Or at least give me a bandage! AAAAAHH!"

"Naruto…you have an abusive personality," Sakura said as she pulled out some bandages, "It's called being a masochist."

'Hmmmm,' Kakashi thought as he noticed the bleeding stop and beginning to heal, 'it's already healing.'

'Do you see that?' Kasumi thought as her companion confirmed, 'Is that the power of the Demon Fox?'

'Yep…it's one reason why we couldn't kill it back then,' the spirit said as Sakura was done bandaging Naruto up.

A little while later, Kakashi began to interrogate the two men.

"How did you know we were coming?" one of the men asked.

"Come on," Kakashi said pacing back and forth, "A puddle, in the middle of the road, when it hasn't rained for weeks, with no cloud in the sky?"

"…" Kasumi stared up as she heard that.

"It was obvious something was wrong," Kakashi finished.

'Are you sure…' Kasumi thought as she kept looking up into the sky.

"Now who were you working for?" Kakashi ordered as Kasumi walked away from the interrogation.

"Huh?" Naruto said as he looked up to his sister.

"Hi Naruto," Kasumi said as she sat next to him, "How are you feeling?" Kasumi asked putting an arm around her brother.

"Better," Naruto replied with a bit of sadness, "My wound is healed, but I was humiliated."

"You were scared a bit…" Kasumi said as Naruto looked up, "To tell you the truth, I actually hesitated when they killed the bundle of logs that Kakashi used in that Substitution jutsu…but you can't get distracted in battle…it leaves you wide open for an attack."

"Don't worry…" Naruto chuckled as he stood up, "I won't make that mistake again sis."

"You better not do it again," Kasumi ordered and then began to laugh, "I can't keep saving your sorry rear every time you're in danger."

"Hahahaha," both laughed.

Everyone entered a boat and Naruto eventually fell to sleep. Sakura was staring at Sasuke, and Sasuke was ignoring life. Kasumi was looking into the water and seeing how many fish she could see through the fog.

"WWWWWWHHHHHHAAAAAAA!" Naruto shouted as he jolted awake. Everyone flinched at the noise created.

"What part about silent and stealthy you did not get Naruto?" Kakashi said as Naruto blinked.

"Sorry," Naruto said recomposing himself, "I just had a bad dream.

"Stay awake," Kakashi said and returned his view to look out.

Naruto tugged on his sister's sleeves.

"Yes Naruto?" Kasumi asked wondering if it was about the dream.

"Well…" Naruto began to recall the dream, "I saw someone that looked like me being savagely beaten and thrown around by someone that kind of looked like you."

"Hmmmmm?" Kasumi said in deep thought, "Now why would you ever dream that?

"It was strange…" Naruto responded as he looked around, "Usually when I dream I'm in first person. I was watching this happen in front of me."

"Hmmmmm….I have no idea what's going on…just stay awake and watch the waters with me," Kasumi answered and Naruto sat next to her.

Somewhere in Naruto's mind…

"!"

"I wish I was still alive," Minato said as he tried to look for a place to hide and hid behind a rock, "How'd she find out about what really happened to Kasumi."

"Where are you my dear sweet husband…" a red-headed and red-faced Kushina floated along the empty halls that were littered with rocks, "I want to speak with you…"

Minato gulped and began to pray that his wife did not turn around...

"Come out already!" Kushina shouted as Minato tried to crawl away from his hiding spot, "Or are you going to hide yourself as you did about the truth on Kasumi's disappearance?"

"Hey! I didn't want to tell yo- Crud…" Minato blurted out in protest and realized his mistake as Kushina's spirit turned to him with a glare.

"Why did you teach her your moves!" Kushina yelled as she lunged onto Minato and began strangling him to death, "We're spirits…I can do this for all eternity and make this an eternal hell for you if you don't speak!"

"She wanted to lear-ACK!" Minato struggled to speak as his throat was constricting due to the wrath of an unhappy mother, "I'm sorry…"

"I'm sure you're going to be sorry…" Kushina grinned evily as Minato knew this was going to be a long eternity…

A/N: Never lie to your loved ones…especially if you're stuck with them for eternity and they find out your little secret.

I'm sorry that it's been a while since the last updates. A lot of homework, bad luck, and hunger has distracted me from continuing any of my fics. And Mid-terms are coming…I'll be busy, and most of us will be studying for them. I'll restart my fics right after the Mid-terms.

Thanks for reading and waiting. (Or was it waiting and reading…) Thank Dragon-wolf Tamer for editing this story for me.

"Hehe, poor Minato,"-Dragon-Wolf Tamer


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, then I probably end up never selling it to Disney.

A/n: Ow, so many assignments and reports… but since it's Spring Break, I can get this out quickly before I go back to mass research.

Chapter 9: Demon of the Mist

"Okay," Kasumi said as she stepped off the boat, "that was very uneventful."

"Well, that means we were successful in getting into the Land of Waves undetected," Kakashi said as the bridge builder got off the boat, "Sir, I think this is where we leave."

"Huh?" the old builder said as he looked around in shock, "Why? I need protection from any danger."

"Yes," Kakashi said as he began to go into the boat, "But you paid for a C Rank mission to protect you from any robbers or thugs. Chunin attacking us and working for someone is clearly a sign for a mission much higher than C rank, and you only paid for C Rank protection to get you into the area."

"You have to understand sir," Sakura said from the boat, "this level of work is too great for us. We are only genin and can't handle this type of danger."

"Oh well," the man said sadly as he sighed, "you are going to let a poor old man face the danger of dying. Most likely my little grandson will find out and cry "Grandpa, grandpa, why did you go like that…"

"…" Kasumi noticed that the man was putting up an act to attempt to get the genin to keep going with the old man, 'You don't think we are gulible to bel-'

"All right," Kakashi said as Kasumi and some of the other genin looked wide-eyed at the sensei, "I guess we can arrange to keep you guarded until you finish the bridge. Though, at least shed some light on the situation. Why were those chunin sent after you?"

"Well, have you ever heard of a man named Gato," the bridge builder asked.

"You mean that large shipping company?" Kasumi said as the builder nodded.

"Well, all comerse and trade go through his shipping industry. And he has been abusing that link to his advantage as he also imports illegal items as drugs, weapons, criminals that he hires for protection…"

"And why haven't you done anything to stop him?" Naruto asked as the bridge builder sighed.

"We barely have any money," the old man stated as he took a glance at the village nearby, "thanks to him running all the trade here, our nobles don't have any money left as he runs the banks, he has thugs and guards posted to put down uprisings, and hires ninja to take out any leader we have to raise against him. He basically broke us."

"That's horrible," Sakura said as she leaped out of the boat.

"That can't continue any longer," Naruto said as he flipped out of the boat onto the shore.

"Though, why would he care for a bridge builder?" Kakashi asked as he had an idea what the reason might be.

"If this bridge is successful, my people can finally have an alternate method of traveling to the mainland and would have no need for Gato's shipping services. Surely, this will ruin him and his influence, so he is doing everything in his power to dispose of any attempt to build a bridge."

"Well, if your people's economy ever recovers, you can pay the rest of the bill for this mission later," Kakashi said as he ordered everyone to get ready to head out.

The group wandered closer and closer to the main town of the island. All was quiet and peaceful… until…

"AAAAAHH!" Naruto yelped as he pulled out a kunai and threw it a bush.

"Ummm…. why did you just fling a kunai at that poor bush," Kasumi asked as Naruto looked around.

"You idiot," Sasuke shouted as he realized his screaming might attract attention.

"I thought something moved," Naruto replied as his response.

"I didn't sense anything," Kasumi said as she stared at the bush.

"I noticed nothing," Sasuke said and Sakura used that in her judgement.

"You're just acting like an idiot again."

Suddenly, the bush shakes and everyone's attention is drawn to it.

"Not this time," Naruto said as he threw a kunai into the bush, and a rabbit leaped from it's hiding place and was nearly scared to death from that.

"It was a rabbit!" Sakura yelled at Naruto as the usual argueing began. Kasumi stared at the rabbit… thinking how cute it is at first, and then wondering at the fur.

"You noticed as well?" Kakashi said to Kasumi as she had an idea what the problem was, "these rabbits don't live here in this area during this season. This must be a demosticated rabbit.

Though, during the argueing and the rabbit, Kakashi noticed something unusual and felt something in the air. Kasumi sensed the same thing and had an idea that danger was near.

"Duck!" Kakashi yelled as everyone stopped what they were doing and dropped to the ground. A very large blade flew through the air in a spiraling towards where their heads were.

"What the…" Nrruto said as the one who threw the weapon at them appeared.

Kakashi looked at the figure and knew who he was. "Well, well, Zabuza Momouchi ; the Demon of the Mists."

"Who?" Kasumi said as Zabuza got his blade back.

"He's one of the listed Missing-nins that are wanted."

"Kakashi Hatake, you're an interesting one," Zabuza said as he drew his blade, "your reputation is so great, it has made its way into my bingo book."

'Hmmmm… why am I getting the distinct feeling we are screwed now,' Kasumi thought as Kakashi prepared for a fight.

"Hold back… he's a Jonin and the master at the silent kill," Kakashi warned his students.

"Silent kill?" Naruto said as a light mist came about, "Hey, darn fog."

"The silent kill is an assassination attack that strikes someone in a vital spot so quickly, a person doesn't realize they passed onto the next life at all," Kakashi explained as everyone prepared to keep an eye out for any attempts on them. Kakashi kept his eye out for Zabuza as the sudden mist made it hard to see.

'Oh boy… this is very tense watching these two stare down each other in battle,' Naruto thought as he began to feel nervous, 'I got to get out of here- No… not that again. I'm staying!'

'A jonin…. oh great, this went from easy to extremely dangerous,' Kasumi thought as she kept her gaze on the combatants.

'So this is how it feels like seeing two jonin prepare to fight each other,' Sasuke thought as he stared at the incoming battle, 'this type of thing is too great, I rather take my own life!' Sasuke proceeded to take out a kunai as Kakashi heard and turned.

"Stop Sasuke," Kakashi order and he put away the weapon. This distraction allowed Zabuza to pick out a target to aim for and lung at Kakashi.

"Oh no you don't," Kakashi said as he moved out of the quikly launched attack. Then, he attempted to kick Zabuza as he ducked and attempted to cut down Kakashi with his sword. Kakashi leaped to the said and lunged forward with a Kunai, plunging it into his stomach.

'Phew… no one can survive a fatal blow through the sto-' Kasumi thought as water began to poor out of the fatal wound of the man as he turned into a puddle of water.

"Water clones," Kakashi muttered as Zabuza came out from behind and landed his fatal blade into his lower stomach areas.

"sensei!" Sakura yelled as the same water dripped out of Kakashi and then left a puddle laying on the ground.

"When they say we are mostly made up of water, they really meant it," Kasumi said as Kakashi appeared unharm nearby Zabuza, landing a kick to his back.

"Errrr, how," Zabuza groaned as he recovered from the blow, "I had enough…" Zabuza made some quick hand signs, and launched a decoy attack towards Kakashi, who stood near the puddles of water. Kakashi leaped away… though landed into his trap and was engulfed in a water prison.

"Oh… right… he's a water ninja…." Kasumi said as Kakashi fell for that trap, "Stay away from water…"

"Hey, let our sensei go," Naruto demanded as Zabuza chuckled.

"Well, I came here to get rid of the old man, Kakashi can wait afterwards, and you genin should not be much trouble."

"Sure…" Naruto said as he prepared to strike, "Sakura, keep the old guy safe."

"Got it," Sakura said as she took a defensive position near the bridge builder. Sasuke and Kasumi came over to see if they had any chance of winning this. Naruto decided to summon a small army of Shadow Clones to attack Zabuza.

"Clones… this is too easy," Zabuza said as he flung his sword and struck down nearly all the clones.

Sasuke pulled out a shuriken and threw it at Zabuza, but he easily blocked the blow, "Darn it."

"Okay, let's try something different here," Kasumi said to herself as she lunged at Zabuza in a wreckless charge. Zabuza smirked, and quickly moved out of the way, swinging his sword at the back of her neck… only to have her form fall apart into a pile of leaves.

"Gotcha!" Kasumi said as she placed a kunai in his back, only to have it fall apart into a puddle of water.

"All of you are very unexperienced and weak," Zabuza said as he came out of a hiding spot, "I'm going to let my clones take you on as I go after the man. Water Clones jutsu."

"Not if I haunt you," Kasumi grinned as she activated her special jutsu, "I'll keep Zabuza's clones distracted." Zabuza decided to throw a kunai at Kasumi, but it flew right through her, "Come here you water bags."

'What kind of jutsu is that?' Zabuza thought as his clones attacks flew right through her and she was able to strike them down as if she was solid. But that didn't matter, the genin still were going to be in the way.

"Attacking him directly isn't going to work…" Sasuke said as Naruto handed him a shuriken and Sasuke had an idea.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Sasuke said as Naruto nodded.

"We need to get Kakashi out of that bubble," Naruto said as Sasuke prepared himself for the attack.

Sasuke got the shuriken ready and launched it, "Windmill of shadows!"

"A shuriken?" Zabuza said as he threw a kunai to stop the weapon from spinning… only to have it reveal a second kunai to be below it.

"Not good enough, but a clever idea," Zabuza said as he quickly threw another kunai… only to have Naruto leap out of his transformation and leap over the blade.

"Now… let Kakashi go!" Naruto shouted as he placed a powerful kick to the Demon of the Mist, he lost control of his Water prion and Kakashi was freed.

"Thanks… I thought I was going to be stuck there for weeks," Kakashi said as he got ready to take over the fight, "Naruto, Sasuke, return back to guarding the bridge builder. Kasumi, make an attempt to dispose of any clones he uses and attempt to keep him distracted."

"Okay," Kasumi said as she was glad the clones vanished when Naruto hit Zabuza, "over here," Kasumi said as she flashed under a thrown kunai, and appeared behind the demon ninja, "or over here."

"Annoying little pest," Zabuza shouted as his mighty slash did absolutely nothing to the ghost ninja.

"Awgh, you're getting cranky," Kasumi teased as she went behind him again and took his sword from his belt. "got your weapon."

"Give me that back and stop messing around," Zabuza yelled as Kasumi just examined the sword, "Forget this, Water Style-"

"Great Vortex Jutsu," Kakashi finished as he was able to quickly copy the hand signs and activate it first. A large watery portal sucked Zabuza in and twirled and drowned him. Zabuza landed exhausted on the ground, but not defeated.

"Hahaha," Kasumi laughed at the simple fact he was hit by his own move.

"Oh no you don't," Zabuza said as he attempted to perform hand signs, and Kakashi copied it exactly.

"It-It's the Sharigon… the Copycat ninja's special ability," Zabuza shouted as Kakashi nodded.

"Water Dragon jutsu," Kakashi finished as the Demon of the Mist was blasted with high-volumes of water projectiles.

'Wait….wouldn't that make him an Uchiha if he can do that?' Kasumi thought as Sasuke was thinking something similar.

"Go sensei!" Naruto cheered as Zabuza looked defeated and wasted.

"Huh?" Kasumi said as many needles went right through her, and hit Zabuza in the neck and other areas, "what just happened?"

Everyone turned to the directions where the needles came from and saw an ANBU hunter. The disguised figure wandered towards the body of Zabuza.

"I will need to take him to headquarters to dispose of him," the ANBU said as he prepared to transport the body, "I'm a ANBU Hunter who was looking for this criminal for a while. I thank you of locating him and helping in his defeat."

"Okay, your welcome I guess," Naruto said as Kakashi and the ANBU spoke for a bit.

'Something doesn't seem right,' Kasumi thought as her favorite spirit came to her, 'what now.'

'You're right… I'm not too sure, but those needles didn't seem to be placed at a fatal spot,' the spirit said as Zabuza laid motionless, 'seems more like paralazys.'

"Hmmm," Kasumi thought as she handed back the stolen blade for the ANBU to dispose of and the hunter and his pray vanished off.

"That was very interesting," the bridge builder said as everyone picked up anything that was dropped before they headed off towards the village of waves again.

"A battle between Jonin and an ANBU hunter," Naruto said as Kakashi began to think a little bit about the hunter suddenly appearing in this area.

"That went better than most people would expect," Sakura said as the group began to wander off.

"I'm just wondering what other surprises we might find," Sasuke said as the group was off.

'I don't think this is the end for Zabuza,' Kasumi thought as she dropped her jutsu and went with her team.

Okay, that was fun to review the episodes after a while. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and sorry about the wait. I was very busy.

Okay, read and review. Thank Dragon-Wolf Tamer for editing.

"Yay, abridge refrance," –Dragon-Wolf Tamer


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto…..believe it!

A/N: Going to get as much out there before I'm committed to my Spring Break work. Still enjoying old Episodes of Naruto though.

Chapter 10: Chakra Control

"Epic fail sensei," Kasumi said as Kakashi woke up on a bed.

"Huh?" Kakashi said as the other students came over to him.

"You're awake sensei," Sakura said as the group made it over to the bed.

"What happened?" Kakashi asked as Kasumi began to chuckle.

"You fainted 20 steps after we left the battle area," Kasumi said as the nearby lady handed him his breakfast, "Your Sharingan used up more energy than you thought."

Kakashi stretched and moved around for a bit, "Ack, it might take a week for me to fully get control of myself"

"Well, at least you defeated one of the more powerful assassins," Tazuna said as Kakashi sat up.

"I'm curious though why that tracker didn't destroy the body. Usually, when a ninja goes rogue, trackers are sent to hunt them down and destroy all evidence of the body."

"But Zabuza was dead, you saw his body," Sasuke said as Kakashi began eating his food.

"Well, think about it, the body of a shinobi contains a lot of information. Chakra, jutsus, medicine….if someone was able to examine a person's corpse, they could obtain the secrets of their village and use it against them. If someone were able to kill me, they would be able to copy my sharingan."

"And those weapons used to hit Zabuza were some throwing needles," Kasumi said as she remembered the tracker threw them right through her, "I never known for anyone to die from being hit in the neck."

"That's true Kasumi," Kakashi said, "those needles are only fatal if they hit a vital organ. The problem is that the neck has no vital organ, and the other areas the needles hit had no real affect. It's safe to say that Zabuza is still alive."

"ALIVE!" Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all shouted as the bridge builder was shocked.

"How?" Tazuna asked as he dread the thought of the return of the Demon of the Hidden Mist, "Aren't you over thinking this a bit?"

"The ANBU wasn't trying to destroy Zabuza; he was trying to save him. He used ineffective weapons against him for it's purpose. As well, he tried carrying a body that was larger than he was. It's easy for an ANBU tracker to simulate a death….stopping someone's heart without killing them."

"Yep… we are still screwed," Kasumi said as everyone groaned.

'Yes!' Naruto mentally cheered as he groaned, 'I can get another shot at that guy!'

"So what are we supposed to do?" Sakura asked as Kakashi gave an eye-grin.

"I may not be able to fight, but I'm able to train all of you."

"All right!" Naruto shouted as everyone began to groan (except Kasumi), "the only thing to do right now is to get stronger to defeat Zabuza or anyone else Gato, or Bato, or whatever that guy's name is. Believe it!"

"I don't believe it."

"Huh?" most of the group said as they glanced over to a boy who seemed to be upset.

"Gato will just send more people after you and you will all be killed."

"Inari, don't be rude to these people," Tsunami came from behind overhearing her son's comment, "they got your grandfather over here safe and sound."

"Ah, don't worry," the old man said coming over to his grandson, "I'm rude to them too."

"Hey kid," Naruto said coming over to them, "You have no idea who you're speaking with. We are all strong ninja, and I'm going to be Hokage one day, and become a hero."

"Only stupid kids believe in heroes," Inari shouted as he ran off.

"I'm going to show that kid a piece of my mind," Naruto said as Kasumi followed wondering if her little brother will pull something stupid.

"There goes Naruto again," Sakura said as said boy ran after Inari.

"When I find that ki- Huh?" Naruto said as he found the boy crying.

"Crying?" Kasumi whispered from behind, "I wonder what is going on in the village itself."

"Hmmm… I think I'll leave him alone…." Naruto whispered as the two turned around and headed back for their rooms.

"Okay, I'll need to change into training clothes," Kasumi said as she noticed she still had on a dress, and would rather be still clothed at the end of training.

"All right," Naruto said as he wandered off to change himself, "Meet up with Kakashi and the others soon."

"Yeah Yeah," Kasumi said as she snuck away to change clothes.

'That kid seemed to think heroes are only myths,' Kasumi's friendly haunting spirit said as she was removing her skirt.

'Privacy please,' Kasumi complained as the spirit giggled.

'We are all girls here….' The spirit responded in Kasumi's mind, 'though that Inari kid sounds like a hero betrayed him once and he stopped believing.'

''Maybe so,' Kasumi said as she changed into some dark green pants, 'oh well, we just have to prove to him heroes do exist.'

'And Heroines, don't forget us,' the spirit said as Kasumi threw off her red shirt, 'and if it's anything to help, I think Kakashi is going to train you all in the annoying art of Chakra control.'

'Annoying art?' Kasumi thought as she finally located the shirt she wanted in her bag, 'Sounds like you never liked the training.'

'Let's leave it at this,' the spirit said as Kasumi put on a green camouflage shirt, 'you'll be hating trees after this.'

'Okay?' Kasumi said as she headed out to where her team was, 'I'll be seeing what you mean very shortly.'

Everyone was gathered in front of Kakashi in a nearby wooded area. Naruto was trying his best to stand still, Sasuke was just patiently waiting for Kakashi to start, and Sakura was staring at Sasuke. Kasumi arrived at the clearing and waited for instructions.

"I think you guys need to improve on your mastery of chakra," Kakashi said as Sasuke and Naruto groaned, "Does anyone want to explain what chakra is?"

'I'm not… my hand has nightmares of all that writing we did that I forgotten everything about that,' Kasumi thought as the spirit began to laugh.

'I hated it as well, though I didn't do any writing,' the spirit giggled as Sakura began to explain what chakra was.

"Chakra is the main source of energy used in jutsu. There are two types, the physical type which is in every cell in the body and works together, and the spiritual, which is the primal form that increases from hard work and experience. When you use both types of chakra, you are able to focus them in hand signs to form jutsu," Sakura explained as Kasumi and Naruto lost interest after the 3rd word.

"But don't we just have to know how to use the jutsu?" Naruto asked as Sakura grunted before Sasuke said something.

"He's right, we already know this stuff."

"Right… catra is something we know," Naruto said as Kasumi shrugged.

"Catra?" Kasumi muttered before Sakura began yelling.

"You haven't fully mastered your mastery over chakra," Kakashi said as everyone began to pay attention, "certain jutsu requires a certain proportion of chakra to be focused in certain areas. The problem is that if you have no control over your chakra, the jutsu will not work, or it will be a joke. So, to help all of you learn chakra control, you will have to give your lives…."

"Doing…." Kasumi asked as Kakashi went over to a tree.

"Climbing trees," Kakashi said as Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke all showed their confusion.

"You got to be kidding me," Naruto said as Kakashi shook his head.

"The catch here is that you are not allowed to climb with your hands….or in Kasumi's case, flying up there. This is a very difficult exercise as the place where you are supposed to focus your chakra is at the soles of your feet… a very difficult spot to focus on. If you are able to do this, then you will be able to perform any jutsu perfectly… in theory."

"It can't be done…" Sakura said as Kakashi focused his chakra at the soles of his feet and began walking up a tree.

"Need I say more?" Kakashi said as everyone saw their sensei walking on the tree as if it was the ground itself, "taking a running start to get some momentum until you get used to running at trees. Mark a kunai at the highest point you can climb and try to pass it."

"This should be fun," Kasumi said as she took out a kunai and picked out a tree, "And you'll be the tree that will torture me."

"Okay, here I go!" Naruto said as he took a running charge at the tree, "Charge!" Naruto was only 5 feet up the tree before he came tumbling down.

"Now my turn," Sasuke said as he was running up the tree….leaving footprints on the bark before he was thrown off, "Darn it."

"Let's try this…." Kasumi said as Kakashi stopped her, "Huh?"

"If you are able to complete this training, I would like to examine why all your chakra suddenly vanishes when your jutsu goes through solid objects."

"Sure… I'm kind of getting tired of having to take a nap whenever I fly into an incoming tree or wall," Kasumi said as she ran at the tree, and began to climb it, only reaching ten feet before she had to stab a kunai into her spot and grab on, "Darn it."

"Hey, this is fun," Sakura said as she calmly walked up the tree and made it to the top.

"Well well, Sakura has shown she is above all of you in chakra control," Kakashi said as Naruto cheered for her.

"Go Sakura!" Naruto said as his mind thought different, 'Darn it….I wanted to be the first one up there.'

"Grrr," Sasuke growled to himself as Sakura saddened.

'I thought I would impress Sasuke, but he's angry at me,' Sakura thought as Kasumi attempted her climb again… only to meet face first into a branch...

"Now, what was that about becoming Hokage Naruto," Kakashi said as Naruto stared at Kakashi, "we all see who might actually be making that spot. And Sasuke of the great Uchiha….it looks like they are not so great after all."

Said boys were glaring up at Sakura as Kasumi was laughing.

"Shut up sensei," Sakura said as everyone resumed training.

"Incoming!" Kasumi shouted as she fell to the ground in a heap, "Ow."

"Gah… Ugh," Naruto said as he tumbled off from the tree. Sasuke also had his failure as the tree finally had enough fractures on it that he had to choose another tree.

'Hmmm… Sasuke is using too much chakra and leaving trees as firewood,' Kasumi thought as she examined the boys, 'but Naruto is using too little chakra and tumbling off… I wonder….' Kasumi had an idea of what to do and ran up the tree. She was able to pass her kunai and reach the top where she sat down on a branch.

"Hey sis," Naruto said from below as Kasumi smiled, "you did it!"

"Look at each other and see what you are all doing wrong," Kasumi shouted from above, "And stop harming wood Sasuke, the trees will get you eventually."

"What are you talking abou-," Sasuke said as he tripped over a nearby log he over saw and fell on his face.

"Like that," Kasumi chuckled as she slid down the tree and reached the bottom.

"Okay, Sakura, go with Tazuna and guard him on the bridge, Kasumi, I will need to use a little bit of my sharingan to examine how chakra is being handled in your jutsu," Kakashi said as Sakura ran off to her post.

"Someone better wake me up before lunch," Kasumi said as she activated her Phantom charge and raised into the air, "Shall I pick another tree to torture me….that one!" Kasumi pointed at the same tree she had been climbing for most of the morning.

"Okay, now," Kakashi said as he activated his sharingan. H stared at Kasumi as her form hit the tree. Kakashi noticed as she was going through the tree, her chakra network was scrambled all over her body, attempting to remake it to fit through the tiny particles in the object. It wasn't her chakra vanishing, it was her chakra network being destroyed and ripped apart, sort of similar to what the Hyuuga clan could do.

"Night, night," Kasumi said as she suddenly fell and was unconscious.

"I think she might need some advanced training with chakra control," Kakashi muttered to himself as Kakashi wandered off to check on the boys as Kasumi rested.

"Ack," Kasumi yawned the next morning as she sat down for lunch, "That was painful."

"Though, I think you might need a more advance form of training for you to keep yourself from losing your connection with your chakra," Kakashi said as Kasumi stared at him.

"Losing my connection?" Kasumi asked as Kakashi nodded.

"You still have all your chakra in your body when you go through solid object, but it was being twisted and morphed way too much that connections were being severed," Kakashi said as Sasuke and Naruto came in and began eating bowl after bowl of food, "If you're not careful, you can shut your heart down or lungs."

"Err… erg," Kasumi grunted at the thought of having herself twisted and crushed whenever she pass through solid objects. That and the fact….

"BLARG!"

"If you guys are going to eat your food, then why did you puke it all out?" Sakura scolded her two male teammates.

"I have to eat to get stronger," Sasuke panted as a few people came over to clean the mess up.

"I have to eat more than him to get even stronger," Naruto panted as the two boys returned to their seats.

"That may be true," Kakashi said as no one bothered to ask how his food was disappearing when he was wearing a mask over his face, "but puking doesn't help."

"… I lost my appetite after that," Kasumi said as she pushed back from her seat.

"Err, me too," Sakura said as she also stopped eating. A few other people joined in.

"Look what you two idiots have done," Tazuna yelled as Naruto and Sasuke ran outside to continue "And there they go again…." Kasumi said as she wondered how long they are going to go at this.

"Kasumi, join Sakura in guarding Tazuna for the rest of the shift," Kakashi said as the old man groaned.

"Don't worry, we are the best of the group so far," Sakura said as Tazuna grumbled.

"You have to be kidding me," Tazuna said and Sakura yelled.

"Let's go…" Kasumi said dragging Sakura and the old man to the area.

At the bridge site, the workers were laboring over the bridge as it was nearly complete. Only a few more days to go before they could get trade over to the village. Though, the workers seemed to be drained of hope, spirit, and courage. One man even complained about risking his own life to build the bridge.

"What do you mean you want out?" Tazuna yelled as the other man looked down.

"Face it," the other man said as he looked over to the ocean, "Gato is going to send his goons over and kill us all."

"But this is a risk we all have to take!" Tazuna yelled as he began stomping around, "If we do nothing to stop him, then we will be living in fear for the rest of our lives!" Tazuna sighed as he walked off, "Break for lunch… and I don't want to see the site of your face on this bridge again, don't bother coming back after lunch."

Kasumi just watched as she saw all the men working afraid, always looking around to see if any of Gato's thugs would arrive and attack. All seemed to lose hope, having only fear present in their eyes.

"It looks dim," Sakura said as she walked over to Kasumi.

"They are just all afraid to continue," Kasumi replied as Tazuna ordered the two guards to follow him.

"Where are we going again?" Sakura asked as Tazuna got out his wallet.

"You want to be able to eat dinner, right?" Tazuna asked and the two girls nodded. They continued down the village road until a small kid ran by holding some bread.

"Thief!" a store owner shouted as Kasumi looked down the path where the kid ran off.

"And these children suffer," Sakura said as Tazuna nodded.

"The children suffer while the adults are too afraid to stand up to Gato," Tazuna explained as they approached a building, "the bridge will bring comers and trade, but more importantly, it will bring hope and courage. Gato will lose his power when we are able to walk over to get what we need. That's why I want to finish this bridge."

"But if the people have no courage, then the bridge will not be finished," Kasumi said as Tazuna knew what she meant.

"Well, don't worry about the men cowering out of the project," Tazuna said as they entered the store.

"This is a store?" Kasumi asked as she looked around the empty aisles.

"There's nothing here," Sakura said as someone was trying to chase after a rolling can, going under Sakura's skirt by accident.

"Gotcha," the poor man said as he just realized what he just done.

"Oh shoot…" Kasumi muttered as she saw what just happened.

"Perve!" Sakura yelled as she smashed the guy through the aisle.

'Overkill!' the spirit said as Kasumi shrugged, 'just how I would do it.'

'Of course,' Kasumi muttered as Sakura muttered something.

"Wow," Tazuna said as he exited the shop, "You surprised me there, not too many women in these parts know how to fight like that."

"Well, they should," Sakura said as Kasumi was trying to explain that he was chasing after a rolling can.

Kasumi turned around to see a kid about to stick his hand in her back pocket, "Yes?"

"Huh?" the boy said, now knowing that he was caught, "AAAHH, don't hurt me."

"Now why would I hurt you?" Kasumi asked as Sakura and Tazuna turned around, "You look hungry. Take this to eat." Kasumi took out a sandwich she was planning to eat later in the day, but he looked hungrier than she was. The kid looked surprised and happy.

"T-Thanks," the boy said as he ran off. Kasumi sighed and turned back to the others.

"Wow, they are drained of any life or happiness…." Kasumi said as the group returned to the bridge to finish up the day.

"Ack…" Kasumi groaned the next morning, "I hate waking at 6 in the morning."

"Quit whining," Sakura said as Kasumi shrugged her fatigue off.

"Where did that idiot go?" Sasuke said at the table as Naruto was nowhere to be seen.

"He's been training all night," Sakura said as she got her breakfast, "Anyone more strain on himself and he's going to kill himself."

"Whoops," Kasumi said as she threw a fork at Sakura's plate, "didn't mean to do that."

"Sakura is right," Sasuke said as he took his breakfast, "that idiot probably is dead somewhere from climbing trees."

"Oopsy," Kasumi said as she was attempting to cut her meal and flung her knife at Sasuke, hitting the wall behind him.

"Keep bringing up Naruto and dying and Kasumi might make us all dead," Kakashi said as he quickly ate his meal without taking off his mask.

"A boy in the middle of the woods alone at night," Tsunami said as Kasumi muttered about not keeping an eye on Naruto.

"Naruto might be a goofy kid, but he's a ninja," Kakashi assured everyone as breakfast went smoothly… somewhat. Kasumi finished her meal and went off to check on her little brother.

"Zzzzzzz," Naruto was sleeping happily on the ground before someone woke him up, "Huh?"

"It's cold sleeping on the ground like that," a masked person said with long hair. Naruto presumed it was a girl.

"Ah, don't worry, I'm used to these kind of things," Naruto said as he stood up, "what are you doing this early in the morning?"

"I'm collecting herbs," the masked figure responded as it made its way across the ground picking up things that might be needed for later.

"Where did he go?" Kasumi muttered as she looked around in the woods for Naruto. She decided to use her phantom charge to scout around the area more quickly, and spotted said boy with the herb collector.

"So you are a ninja?" the masked person asked as Naruto nodded, "you were training out here all night. Why?"

"I have to get stronger," Naruto said as Kasumi set herself on top of a tree branch and looked down.

"But you look plenty strong to me," the masked person asked as Naruto picked up a fallen fruit and devoured it.

"But the only way I will get stronger is if I train, I want to be the best I can, and beat someone to that goal."

"Really," the masked person said as more plants were gathered, "isn't there someone precious you want to protect?"

"Huh?" Naruto responded as he was thinking of people to fit this category, "well, there are the people in my village, though, I care about my older sister a lot after she found me."

"You have a relative?" the mask figured asked as Kasumi looked up.

'Hey little brother, I also want to protect you….that's the only true reason I decided to become a ninja,' Kasumi thought as she looked down at the two people.

"Don't you have any others?" the masked figure asked as Naruto shook his head, "so she is the only person that is related."

"Yeah, and she would do the same for me as well," Naruto said as Kasumi jumped down and gave her little brother a hug.

"Awgh thanks," Kasumi said as Naruto leaped in surprise.

"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed as the masked figure began to laugh.

"Well, I think I have to go now," the masked figured announced, "I have enough herbs."

"Okay, nice talking to you lady," Naruto said as the figure walked off.

"And, by the way, I'm a boy," the masked person said as he walked off, and an awkward silence followed.

"You got to be kidding me!" Naruto shouted in surprise, "He's even prettier than you or Sakura."

"Why you…" Kasumi said as she began strangling Naruto, "how dare you say that a boy is more femininely attractive than your own relative!"

"GAAAHH," Naruto said as he broke free, "time for breakfast!"

"Come back here Naruto Uzumaki!" Kasumi shouted chasing after her little brother.

Lunch time finally came about. Sakura was warned not to mention about the picture that made Inari run off after Kasumi had left to find Naruto. Everyone was seated down to eat.

"Only a few days…" Tazuna said as he enjoyed his meal, "and we can shut Gato down for good."

"We are missing Naruto and Sasuke," Kasumi said as she looked around.

"Hey guys!" Naruto's voice shouted from outside, "come out and see this."

"What now?" Sakura said as everyone migrated to the outdoors to spot Sasuke and Naruto at the top of the tallest tree.

"We climbed the tree," Sasuke shouted from his spot and everyone cheered the two on.

"Overdoing it as usual," Kakashi stated as everyone began to laugh.

"Be careful up there," Kasumi shouted as Naruto took the time to give everyone a heart attack.

"AAAAAHH," Naruto screamed as Kasumi prepared to activate her jutsu to attempt to catch him but he placed his feet on the tree to stop himself, "Hahaha, you really believed I was falling to my death."

"You idiot," Sakura shouted as Naruto began to laugh… and fall again.

"That's a first of breaking the trees," Kasumi said quickly as she prepared her jutsu, "and I thought Sasuke was the only person with a vended with wood."

"Help!" Naruto shouted as Kasumi tried to rush over and catch him….only to look up and see Sasuke had him by the collar.

"You are an idiot," Sasuke said as he sat him down on the ground.

"Good, now you two will be in charge of guarding Tazuna later," Kakashi said as the two boys nodded.

"Back to breakfast," Tazuna stated as the meal went well….before Inari and Naruto decided to collide with views of what might happen.

"You lie!" Inari shouted as he began to stomp around, "there are no such things as heroes….you'll just be destroyed like everyone else."

"What are you complaining about kid?" Naruto finally snapped as he stood up, "Look at you, whining like some sorry little victim, sitting here and doing nothing than crying and feeling sorry about yourself. Instead of sitting around and letting things happen, actually get off your sorry end and do something!"

"Shut up!" Inari snapped as he went running off.

"Naruto, you went too far," Sakura said as Kasumi went off to get Inari.

'What is wrong with that kid?' Kasumi thought as her spirit came with an unexpected reply to the question.

'Neat, I can enter other people's memories,' Kasumi's haunting spirit came from nowhere and stunned Kasumi, 'remember that torn picture frame they told us never to bring up again?'

'Yeah,' Kasumi thought as the spirit continued with her explanation.

'That other person was named Kaisa, a local fisherman who saved Inari when some bullies knocked him and his dog into the water. The kid was frightened to death at swimming and nearly drowned before he saved him. The two became very close friends, so close, that Inari considered him a father and eventually he was considered part of the family. Kaisa was able to bring courage to the village, standing up to many difficult odds, from floods to random attacks on the village.'

"You got all that from entering someone else's mind?' Kasumi asked as she received a giggle as a response.

'I can serve as part of the interrogation unit if you are looking in a career for that,' said the spirit as Kasumi pondered how much did this spirit scan of her own mind, 'well, that Gato creep everyone's been talking about, he did not like having a local hero running around the island, and had him hunted down. From what I found, it took nearly his entire gang to take down one man, sort of impressive for a civi.'

'Civi?' Kasumi asked as she looked under the nearby docks to find nothing, 'civilian?'

'Civi, civilian, whatever,' the other person responded as Kasumi looked over the docks, 'Gato had a public execution ordered in front of the whole island, and the poor kid's spirit was broken along with the courage he brought to the people. That's why no one has made a stand yet against Gato, and that's why Inari and many of the other children live in doubt and fear.'

'It's getting really tempting to hunt him down and slit his throat from behind him,' Kasumi said as she spotted Inari crying on one of the rocks, 'found him.'

'Even though what Naruto said was true,' the blurred spirit in Kasumi's mind spoke out, 'slap the kid for me.'

'Which, Naruto?' Kasumi asked as she received the okay to do so, 'fine.'

"Hey- What," Kasumi said as Kakashi came out of nowhere to speak to the kid.

"Were you going to say something Kasumi?" Kakashi said as Kasumi nodded, "all right, we can try to share this one."

"Okay…" Kasumi said as she turned her attention to Inari, "hey kid, I know my little brother might have acted really cruel to you, but there is something you should know."

"What?" Inari said as he started to compose himself.

"Naruto also grew up without a father," Kakashi said as Inari calmed down a bit, "actually, he never knew either of his parents. Naruto sort of has an idea of what you went through."

"I didn't get to him until he was at the age of 4 or so, he had to fend for himself for 4 years," Kasumi continued as Inari stood up, "imagine being alone where no one was your friend and tried to kill you. Sure, maybe Naruto stopped and cried a few times, but he realized crying wasn't going to do anything."

"What Naruto said, as cruel as it sounded, is true, and he probably said it to himself a thousand times," Kakashi finished as Inari thought about that blonde haired kid he kept putting down as another victim.

"Though maybe he could have said it in a somewhat nicer way instead of rubbing it all in your face at once," Kasumi said as she prepared to walk off, "now come back to your family, they were worried about you running off."

"Okay," Inari said as he stood up and ran after Kasumi. Kakashi shunshined towards the house.

"Inari," Tsunami said as she hugged her son, "you came back."

"Sorry about running off like that," Inari said returning the hug.

"You found him," Naruto said to his sister as she slapped him across the face, "Ow! What the heck was that for?"

"A request from someone you do not remember, nor I know yet," Kasumi smiled as Naruto gave a confused looked, "she says not to scare off children from their families like that."

"But I was trying to make a point- Ow," Naruto said as she slapped him across the face.

"She also says to stop arguing with her," Kasumi finished and Naruto now was wondering what exactly was going on.

"Okay, we move out later to guard the bridge builder," Kakashi said as his students came up to him and noted the departure time, "be prepared for anything that may go on today."

"Right," all four of them said.

'Hey Kasumi,' the spirit said to Kasumi as she was getting her things ready.

'Yes?' Kasumi replied picking up her bag.

'I think I sense that water ninja nearby,' she responded and Kasumi nodded.

'I know… but that doesn't matter, if taking him down will help pick up the bravery of these people, let it be,' Kasumi responded as she noticed Naruto collapsing, 'Oh crap.'

"He is exhausted," Kakashi said as he looked over Naruto's sleeping body, "give him a little rest for a while."

"But what about you?" Tsunami asked as Kakashi stretched his body.

"Do I look wobbly?" Kakashi said and walked off, "Kasumi, if Naruto wakes up, tell him to meet us at the bridge. I want you to guard this place."

"Guard?" Kasumi asked as Kakashi nodded.

"Something doesn't feel right today," Kakashi said as Sasuke, Sakura, Tazuna, and he went off to the bridge site.

'Something bad is really going to happen by the end of today,' Kasumi thought as she sat down to wait for her brother to awaken.

A/N: Water….*Avoids water clones* not that kind of water. I tried to see if I can get one more chapter in before being buried by the sea of homework I have to do for Spring Break. I hope you enjoy this chapter before the big battle against Zabuza and Haku.


	11. Chapter 11

The Yellow Phantom

A/N: What! I blame college work and other random writer's block when I did not have work to do for this delay. But I notice people are still reading it, and now, I will update. Sorry for the wait.

Chapter 11: Broken Crystal Mirrors

"Bored Bored Bored Bored," Kasumi muttered while she walked back and forth near Naruto's sleeping body.

"Uh….Rahhh," Naruto said stretching up from bed and blinking, "so, what's going on?"

"Nothing much," Kasumi said as she finally sighed, "Kakashi just left without us, and you have to stop working yourself to death."

"Wait, left without us!" Naruto shouted, and quickly put on his gear, "Okay, we are ready to go now."

Suddenly, a loud scream came from nearby. Kasumi and Naruto turned to the direction of the scream, and heard many voices.

"Boss man wanted the bridge builder dead, but his family will do," one rough voice shouted.

"Hehe, Zabuza will take care of the builder himself, but just in case, let's break his spirits," another voice said and they began laughing.

"Someone, help me!" Tsunami screamed and another voice was heard.

"Hey, let go of my mom you idiots!" Inari's voice was heard screaming towards the two unknown assailants and then a loud groan came from a distance.

"Argh….he kicked me too low," one of the goons said before the two shinobi decided to actually do something.

"You are dead kid," one of Gato's thugs said before a Kunai was thrust through him by Kasumi.

"What the- Argh," the other thug said as Naruto hit him in the back of the head.

"Well, that takes care of that problem," Kasumi said as she slit the other goons throat, "Are you okay?"

"Yes," Tsunami said and turned to Inari, "Thanks Inari that was really brave….but really stupid at the same time."

"If bravery is stupidity, then I'm the biggest idiot on this planet, and if what Inari did was stupid, then feel free to call him a moron," Naruto stated and Kasumi face palmed herself, "good job kid."

"Hehe, thanks," Inari said and remembered something, "Oh right, I have a lot of villagers that are trying to decide to do something about the problem we are in."

"Wait, what made you go out and gather people?" Kasumi asked and Inari smiled.

"Well, nothing is going to happen if we just sit here and cry."

"As well, nothing is going to happen if we just sit here and talk, let's go," Naruto said and Kasumi nodded. Saying their good byes, the two quickly ran off to the bridge building site.

Already, Zabuza made his move on Kakashi, Sakura, Sasuke, and Tazuna. Haku already activated his Kecked Genoa…with a myriad of crystal mirrors surrounding him inside.

'Ugh, what is this?' Sasuke thought as he looked around at the many reflections all over the mirror.

"Now, let us begin," Hauk's voice echoed through the ice prison, and a bunch of images of said boy appeared, followed by a rain of needles hitting Sasuke.

"Argh…." Sasuke said feeling the projectiles hitting him from many angles, "he is everywhere!"

"Can you guess which one is actually me?" Haku asked and Sasuke began to attack every mirror with kunai, accomplishing nothing at all.

"It's pointless staying in here to fight," Sasuke said as he prepared hand signs, "I'm breaking out, Fire Style, Fireball jutsu!"

A huge ball of flames shot out from Sasuke's mouth, and struck one section of the mirrors, though, after the fog made by melting ice passed, the ice was not affected.

"You have to try harder than that," Haku said before throwing more needles at Sasuke.

'This is not going well,' Sasuke thought as he began to feel the pain caused by the weapons.

Kakashi was busy looking over at the crystal prison created and dodged an attack from Zabuza. 'No, a Kecked Genoa…this level of jutsu is going to be too advanced for anyone to take on….Sasuke is in trouble, I have to help him fast….but Zabuza..'

"Gotcha," Zabuza whispered as he suddenly struck at Kakashi quickly from behind as he caught the Jonin in thought.

'Not good,' Kakashi quickly thought as he tried to move out of the way before realizing it was too late…

"What the?" Zabuza said in surprise as his attack flew right through Kakashi and the Jonin landed a solid kick to the elite ninja's back.

"I knew we were needed," Kasumi said in her phantom form as she had one hand on his shoulder and Naruto nowhere to be found.

"You again," Zabuza said as he remembered the ghost ninja that stole his sword before.

"Hehe, ready for round two?" Kasumi said getting into a fighting position.

'Uh….Kasumi?' the spirit said to her as she prepared for a battle.

'Yes?' Kasumi asked irritated as she was about to do something important.

'Where's Naruto?' the spirit said and Kasumi face palmed herself.

'Oh boy….I told him not to go into the ice prison thingy and stay with me….ugh….warn me of any danger coming to him and I'll quickly try to rescue him, there are openings in some parts of the prison to allow entry….but it kind of looks hard to escape.'

'Will do,' the spirit responded before fading off from Kasumi's mind.

"Quit using your cheap monkey tricks and actually fight!" Zabuza shouted as Kasumi quickly dodged every single sword swipe sent by the assassin. Kasumi closed her eyes for a second and suddenly had a burst of energy and an idea.

"Kakashi, move over a bit," Kasumi said and the jonin quickly moved from the battle site, "Now let's try this."

Kasumi, using the memories of her training quickly produced two spheres of yellow chakra in both hands, and brought each one together into one huge ball.

'What is that?' Zabuza mentally shouted as Kasumi, with lightning speed, rushed at Zabuza and prepared her assault.

"Phantom technique: Great Phantom Rasengan!" Kasumi said out loud and brought the attack into Zabrze's body, sending the man sprawling through the air, and causing a bright flash of light to quickly pierce the fog and allowing some sight again.

"Ugh….that attack just drained me heavily," Zabuza muttered to himself as he began to stand up slowly, "how much power was behind that attack.

"Wow…." Sakura said in shock as she saw the attack, "that was awesome Kasumi!"

"Interesting attack….sort of reminds me of a thunder strike taken to massive proportions," Tazuna complemented.

'Interesting….she used Minato's technique, and added her abilities to it to create a new jutsu…and even a new technique type.' Kakashi thought as he also noticed something else, 'oh no.'

"Thanks….err," Kasumi responded before suddenly feeling drained of her reserves and her phantom jutsu falling, "that took a lot out of me."

'Have to keep Zabuza distract now before he notices her exhaustion or recasts the hidden mists again,' Kakashi said rushing at the water ninja.

"You had to be an idiot again," Sasuke said to Naruto as they were both covered in needles.

"Hey, I forgot about sneaking," Naruto said before Sasuke shrugged.

"We are ninjas….sneaking is one of the first things we learn at the academy, it keeps you alive on some missions….why do you not know that?"

"…Uh….I was not paying attention?" Naruto smiled before Sasuke groaned.

"I still wonder how you became a ninja," Sasuke muttered as more needles came flying their way.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto exclaimed as a horde of shadow clones appeared….only to be mowed down by a needle barrage.

"That was useless," Sasuke complained as Haku kept firing needles in many directions.

"Shadow clone jutsu," Naruto activated his move and more clones came to assist him and attacked all the mirrors.

"This is pathetic," Haku commented as he quickly disposed all of them and placed more needles into the genie's bodies.

"Again," Naruto demanded and even more clones were produced….and the same results kept occurring.

"You truly are a moron," Sasuke said trying to figure out where the fake nin-hunter is.

'There has to be a way….' Sasuke thought before feeling a sudden surge of power and pain, and quickly shut his eyes, "AAAAHH!"

"Sasuke?" Naruto turned to his teammate, getting struck by a needle for letting his guard down.

Sasuke opened his eyes and was not able to believe it, the Sharingan was activated in his eyes….he could see better than he could ever have before, and was able to spot Haku in the mirrors.

"Wow…Sasuke, your eyes…." Naruto said amazed as he dodged a few needles being sprayed over to him.

"Naruto….follow my lead, I can see him," Sasuke ordered and Naruto followed.

Back with Kakashi, Kasumi, Zabuza, Sakura, and Tazuna, the Hidden Mist ninja was able to put up his hidden mist jutsu again with an opening in the combat. Kasumi made her way back where Sakura and Tazuna were, and took guard position there as she still had chakra for one more jutsu, whether that be activating her phantom skills to avoid the bridge builder from getting assassinated, or the need for an attack, she was awaiting an opening. Kakashi and Zabuza were already in major combat; Kakashi avoiding anything Zabuza was throwing at him, but still was not able to see where the demon was.

'Hey Kasumi,' the spirit came back into Kasumi's mind as she shrugged.

'What is it?' Kasumi thought in response as she kept watch, 'Is Naruto okay in that prison?'

'Well….his tactics for combat are doing great….' The spirit said as a small sheepish chuckle was heard.

'Right….he's screwing up again and still alive?' Kasumi asked and the spirit nodded.

'Sasuke activated his Sharingan though, and they are able to see that kid in the ice mirrors,' the spirit replied before realizing something, 'oh no!'

'What?' Kasumi responded with worry, 'what is happening?'

'Naruto is leaving himself wide open for an attack and the boy has spotted the opportunity…it's at his heart!'

Realizing that her little brother was about to die if no one did anything, Kasumi began to worry. She would not be able to activate her jutsu and get in the prison in time to move Naruto, and Haku is about to throw. Though, as she worried, a sudden feeling of knowledge and chakra flew into her. She quickly pulled out a kunai from her belt, and performed a quick hand sign. The kunai began to glow a ghostly yellow and Kasumi had the feeling to throw it into the ice prison.

"What are you doing Kasumi?" Sakura asked as Kasumi threw her kunai.

"Naruto and Sasuke are about to die," Kasumi said and Sakura froze for a moment.

"What- what-" Sakura said in shock wondering how Kasumi was certain before Kasumi did another hand sign.

"Where is he?" Sasuke muttered under his breath as he searched for the ice style user. Though, as he searched, he spotted Haku inside an ice mirror behind Naruto, and his Sharingan showed it was aimed at Naruto's heart.

"Farewell…" Hauk's voice whispered as Naruto looked around confused.

"Look out Naruto!" Sasuke shouted quickly charging towards the knuckle headed ninja and tried to push him out of the way, before he noticed an unusual sight. A yellow kunai flew right through one of the ice mirrors, and quickly changed course and lodged itself at Naruto's feet.

"What?" Naruto said in shock as he jumped up. Before Hauk's needles made contact with Naruto, a bright yellow flash erupted from the Kunai, and the needles knocked away.

The flash was also noticed through the mist, as both Zabuza and Kakashi were caught off guard from it.

"What was that?" Zabuza said as both ninja were temporarily blinded.

'Wait….that flash….that could not be….' Kakashi thought as he quickly regained his vision and charged up a chidori.

"That was bright," Tazuna said as he looked at the ice prison that was emitting light due to the refractions caused by something.

"That looks beautiful…what's going on in there Kasu- Kasumi?" Sakura said before she noticed Kasumi gone, "where did she go?"

Naruto stood stunned at what just happened. In a bright flash, his sister appeared and quickly knocked away the needles aimed for him in a quick flurry of her dagger she pulled out. Sasuke was even more amazed at the speed and the chakra she had as he looked at her.

'Her chakra….it's….it's extremely different then what most people have,' Sasuke thought in awe.

"W-W-Wow!" Naruto exclaimed as Kasumi prepared another attack.

'She's something new," Haku thought as she now held a glowing dagger in her hand, 'I have to stop her from doing anything.' Haku began going from mirror to mirror throwing needles at her, but all she did was swipe away with her dagger and all needles were knocked to the ground one-by-one. Quickly, Kasumi suddenly started to glow with a bright yellow glow.

"What's she doing?" Sasuke said as the lights kept reflecting and refracting all over the prison.

"What the hell is going on in there?" Zabuza said as the lights from the prison started to glow brighter.

"Wow!" Sakura and Tazuna both said in amazement as the lights refracting out of the prison looked colorful and bright.

"Phantom technique, Phantom Dagger Storm!" Kasumi shouted and quickly began appearing, slashing, and vanishing only to appear in a bright yellow flash somewhere else. The dagger took an electrical glow to it, and the mirrors were being attacked too fast to reform themselves.

"She's too fast!" Haku said as he barely dodged being flashed by Kasumi as she kept at each mirror, destroying it in the process.

'That speed….it's not even human,' Sasuke thought as he saw the crystal mirrors falling apart, "Naruto, let's get out of here, Kasumi broke open an entrance."

"Okay," Naruto said as they went threw the gaps on one of the walls, "this place is finally falling down."

As soon as the lights were seen, the mirror prison Haku set up was now in ruins. Only a few walls and pillars remained on what was left of this jutsu. Kasumi stood there, out of her jutsu and shakily on her feet.

'I-I-It hurts everywhere….' Kasumi thought as she felt the effects of chakra drain hitting her body at an extreme level, 'that jutsu did me in on energy.'

Kakashi was able to quickly look over at Kasumi and check her chakra levels, 'She's completely empty….her body functions are slowing down….not good.'

"Kasumi's not looking too good guys?" Sakura stated as she saw the two boys run through the fields, "and boy, you guys look injured..."

"We have needles all over our bodies, what do you think we are right now?" Sasuke said before turning around and noticing something.

"Phew….my sis beat that kid down pretty good, don't you think Sasuke?" Naruto smiled and looked at his sister, who was starting to buckle, "wait, Kasumi?"

"Haku's here…" Sasuke said before he noticed the needles flying through the air. It was too late to do anything. As quickly as Sasuke was able to see it, the needles found their way into Kasumi, hitting her on her left side. She quickly stood up straight and gasped for a moment, and then collapsed onto the ground motionless.

"No," Kakashi said as he saw the actions with his own Sharingan. No one could have done anything, no allies were nearby, and Haku already threw his needles before anyone knew.

"Sis!" Naruto said running over to his sister, and ran down to check on her. Haku stood nearby looking at the boy.

"Naruto, come back," Sakura said and Sasuke saw Haku, but noticed he was not armed at all.

"She came in to protect Naruto…she protected what she considered precious," Haku said as Naruto felt for a breath and noticed nothing coming out of her. Then towards her heart. No pulse was able to be felt.

"No….no….this can't be happening….sis!" Naruto said while crying and growling, "you are the only family I have left….you can't die….no!" Soon, red chakra began to pour out of Naruto, spreading throughout his body and enveloping him. He began to take on animalistic features, and eventually had a fox tail at his end.

"What is happening to him?" Sakura said in shock at what Naruto was turning into.

"That chakra….it's not any chakra I've seen before….it's evil," Sasuke said as he began to shake in fear at what Naruto was.

"It's the Kyuubi," Kakashi said softly, but noticed that Zabuza was distracted at the destruction of the mirror prison, and the fox. Kakashi jumped at the opening, and lands a blow on Zabrze's arms, paralyzing them.

"Erg…." Zabuza groaned and realized the trouble he was in, "I can't move my arms!"

"What is this?" Haku said looking at the demon in front, "I can't let him do anything!"

No matter what Haku did, Naruto was either unaffected, or broke through. Not even ice walls were standing up to him.

"You….will…pay….for…hurting….her!" Naruto shouted as he charged through at Haku….who then noticed something.

"I have to quickly end this," Kakashi said as he prepared a Chidori and struck at Zabuza, who was on the verge of defeat.

"Lightning blade," Kakashi said, but instead of hitting Zabuza, Haku leaped in the way, and took the fatal blow.

"What?" Naruto said calming down considerably as he witnessed what Haku did for Zabuza, "Why?"

"Zabuza moved out of the way, and Naruto moved over to Hauk's body.

"I-I was useless to Zabuza….someone who was precious to me….I-I had to do something to protect him when he was in danger…." Haku said before his voice faded away.

"Wow….what a mess you have gotten into," a voice said as Kasumi felt herself float on nothing.

"Everything feels light…" Kasumi muttered as she could not move, and she had no strength to even open her eyes.

"Well….now you sort of know how it feels to be dead?" the spirit said from out of sight.

"I'm dead?" Kasumi said feeling depressed, "that figures."

"I said sort of," the spirit responded before giggling a bit, "pay attention more. You are actually in a state of fake death, like Zabuza was before.'

"So why do I feel weird?" Kasumi sassed as she got a giggle for a response.

"What….you just got pinned down by a bunch of needles, were you expecting something more comfortable?"

"Oh….then, what now?" Kasumi asked as the spirit giggled even more, "and what's with the giggling?"

"Oh nothing," the spirit replied as she flew over Kasumi, who was not able to open her eyes, "well, you wake up."

"How?" Kasumi asked before getting some feeling back into herself.

"You are doing it right now," the spirit said as the pains she had been returning, "all I have to say right now is, have fun in the hospital!"

"Ha-ha," Kasumi Sarcastically laughed before returning to her body.

"Well, that was exciting," Kakashi said as the villagers paraded around the town. Gato was defeated, his gang ran away, and they could fend for themselves now. Though, one thing remained a problem.

"Naruto?" Sakura asked as Naruto sat next to his sister with his head down.

"Why are you gone?" Naruto muttered.

Sasuke stared at the boy and his sister and remained silent.

"You guys have done a lot for us," Tazuna said as he looked around, "I appreciate what you have done and I feel greatly sorry for your loss."

"Yeah….it is sad when someone you care about is gone," Inari said before soft chuckling was being heard.

"What is that?" Sakura said looking around.

"You guys suck," Kasumi softly said as she began to breathe, "remember, Zabuza pretending to be dead via needles?"

"Sis!" Naruto said hugging his sister before she groaned.

"Ow," Kasumi said as Naruto backed off.

"So you are alive," Kakashi said before Sakura stared at Kakashi.

"Wow, that shows a lot of emotion sensei," Sakura said before Sasuke nodded.

"Can we go home now?" Kasumi softly said before coughing, "And what happened to Zabuza and Haku?"

"Haku blocked an attack for Zabuza, and Zabuza had a change in heart and took out Gato….but took too much damage in the process," Kakashi explained before Kasumi nodded.

"Well, I hope they end up somewhere where they are happy."

"I am sure of them being somewhere peaceful now," Naruto said before Kasumi groaned.

"We will get some people to set up a boat and transport you guys overseas," Tazuna said before running off.

After a few days stay for Kasumi to be well enough to safely be transported to the Leaf Village, the bridge was complete.

"Well, that looks awesome," Kasumi said looking at the masterpiece.

"Finally, you guys can be independent," Naruto said as Tazuna nodded.

"Now this bridge needs a name," Tazuna said as Inari nodded, "a name that gave us hope, a name that sacrificed for us, and after talking to your sensei, and speaking with Naruto a bit, I have came up with one."

"And that is…." Sasuke asked as Naruto smiled.

"The Great Uzumaki Bridge," Tazuna said and Kasumi chuckled, "we were going to call it the Great Naruto Bridge, but he insisted it to be Uzumaki."

"Hehe," Kasumi said as she lay down on a nearby stretcher, "You guys remember I can't move, right?"

"Oh right," Naruto said as both he and Sasuke lifted her onto the boat.

"Good bye," Team 7 said to the villagers while the boat began to move from the port.

"Good bye," Inari, Tsunami, Tazuna, and the rest of the village said to the departing group.

"Well….this mission has gotten weird really fast…." Kasumi said as Naruto laughed.

"Well, everything ended up turning out all right," Naruto said before Kasumi yawned.

"Well, I'm still drained of chakra, I need a nap, see you all when I wake up," Kasumi said as she fell asleep.

"Good dreams," Naruto said before going to Sakura and Sasuke who were at the other side of the boat.

Ow, this ended up being long. Oh well, I hope you enjoyed the chapter after a long wait. I was busy….a lot. I still see that people are still reading this story, which is good, and I thank you. More to come soon.

And if you have forgotten, Dragon-Wolf Tamer is doing the editing. Hit it!

"OK," hits computer, "Sorry not in that way, hehe, anyway, if there is anything I didn't get it's my fault, anyway, bye," –Dragon-Wolf Tamer.


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